(Paris) World number 8 Casper Ruud became the very first Norwegian to qualify for the last four in a Grand Slam by beating young Danish talent Holger Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 in a 100% Scandinavian quarter-final at Roland-Garros on Wednesday evening.
Posted at 7:04 p.m.
He will face the Croatian Marin Cilic, ex-world number 3 today 23e and winner of the 2014 US Open, for a place in the final.
Before this 2022 edition of Roland-Garros, Ruud (23) had never passed the round of 16 in a Grand Slam.
The native of Oslo, former world number 1 junior, is a regular at tennis firsts in his country: the first Norwegian to make it into the top 10, the first to win an ATP title, the first to reach a final in Masters 1000 (Miami in early April) and first to qualify for the end-of-season Masters (2021).
Ruud spoke about his consistency, hitting 54 winning shots for only 24 unforced errors, to put an end to Rune’s fine run, author of 46 unforced errors for as many winning shots as his evening opponent, and winning after 3 h 14 min of match.
Runes, 40e world at 19 after entering the top 100 in January, had never won a single Grand Slam match, in two previous attempts, before Roland-Garros.
The other semi-final will pit Friday Rafael Nadal, thirteen times crowned on Parisian clay and Novak Djokovic’s scorer in a memorable clash completed overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, to world number 3 Alexander Zverev.