World No.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. He will face the Croatian Marin Cilic, ex-N.3 in the world today 23rd and winner of the US Open 2014, 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 No.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 made his regularity speak, hitting 54 winning shots for only 24 unforced errors, to put an end to the nice course of Rune, author of 46 unforced errors for as many winning shots as his evening opponent, and win after 3:14 min of game. Rune, 40th in the 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.
