The duel of the Northmen decided the last semifinalist of the French Open. Will the duel this time remain without a verbal showdown?

Roland Garros knows its first semifinalists of the year as of Tuesday. To the delight of most tennis fans, world number one Carlos Alcaraz will face playing legend Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final. Alexander Zverev managed to secure his place in the opening quarterfinal match on Wednesday. The expected match between Norwegian Casper Ruud and Dane Holger Rune decided who his opponent would be. Their match at the same venue last year brought great emotions.

Casper Ruud and Holger Rune met a year ago at the same stage of the French Open as this year, and that match brought a verbal shootout in addition to some quality tennis. Rune accused the Norwegian tennis player of mocking him. A response came from Ruud’s camp, speaking of the young Dane’s lying.

The parents of both tennis players were involved in the reverberations of the match and only one thing is clear. The duel ended in victory for the older of the two tennis players, Nora Ruud.

The two Nordic players are among the favourites at the Paris Grand Slam and were again drawn in the same quarter of the pool. Ruud has found his forgotten form and has lost only two sets so far at Roland Garros. Holger Rune worked up a good sweat in the eighth round. He needed five sets against the Argentine Cerundolo to advance. Moreover, the final set was decided in a tiebreak.

The 20-year-old Danish tennis player at the French Open clearly attracts unusual stories. In the third set against Cerundolo, he didn’t find much sympathy with tennis experts or fans when he didn’t concede a double-fault ball and thus won an important fiftieth thanks to an error by the umpire.

Today’s duel

The beginning of the match found Ruud more at ease. While the Dane made a lot of errors, the Norwegian showed more confident tennis and soon led 3: 0. Rune only showed signs of improvement in the one game he won for himself. After 27 minutes, the 24-year-old Oslo native led 1: 0 on set points.

The start of the second set did not bring any significant change. Rune lost his serve, and although he wanted a lot and hectic himself, he could not get more balls in a row. Ruud was winning longer exchanges, correctly anticipating the direction of Rune’s attacks and making far fewer errors. Although Rune’s display was slowly improving, Ruud took advantage of the third set point and won the second set.

Rune’s improvement

The first two games of the third set brought a double opening. The younger of the two tennis players finally won his opening serve and, moreover, took away his opponent’s. With his energy, he won the crowd over and turned a successful start to the set into a 6:3 win.

In the fourth set, games four and five were decisive. First, Casper Ruud won Rune’s serve after a great fight and then, again after a great fight, defended his own. The Dane improved throughout the match, but one aspect of his game was a slight weakness for most of the match and even more pronounced in the final set. It is the success of the first serve. In the final act he scored even below 40% in it.

Thus, Casper Ruud won after sets 6::1, 6::2, 3::6 and 6::3 . The number four player in the ATP rankings did not feel he was the favourite in the match and praised his performance in all three sets he won after the match. If he repeats it, he can definitely think about a semifinal success against German Zverev.

Source: Roland Garros, Eurosport