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Norwegian to face Djokovic or Koepfer in last four

Casper Ruud continued his strong 2020 run on clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Saturday, beating fourth seed Matteo Berrettini 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in Rome.

The Norwegian landed 20 forehand winners to improve to 12-2 on the surface this year after nearly three hours on Pietrangeli. During February’s Golden Swing, Ruud reached two finals from three clay events. The 21-year-old captured his maiden ATP Tour crown in Buenos Aires and finished as a runner-up in Santiago.

Ruud improves to 2-1 in his ATP Head2Head series against the Italian. The Oslo native claimed a straight-sets victory against Berrettini at Roland Garros last year. Berrettini earned his only victory against Ruud two weeks ago at the US Open.


Ruud has played well throughout this week against taller opposition. The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier upset 6’6” Karen Khachanov in the first round and claimed back-to-back straight-sets victories against 6’3” Lorenzo Sonego and 6’6” Marin Cilic to reach the last eight.

By advancing to the semi-finals, Ruud has improved on his father’s best ATP Masters 1000 run. Christian Ruud reached his only quarter-final at the level at the 1997 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Corretja).

Berrettini was attempting to become only the second Italian to reach the semi-finals in Rome since 2000. Filippo Volandri, a semi-finalist in 2007, is the only player to achieve the feat this century.

Ruud will aim to reach his first Masters 1000 final when he faces Novak Djokovic or Dominik Koepfer on Sunday. The World No. 34 has not met Djokovic or Koepfer at tour-level.

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Berrettini overpowered Ruud with strong serving and aggressive forehands to establish a 3-1 advantage in the first set. The Italian showcased impressive touch as he attempted to shorten points, with Ruud committing only six unforced errors in the opener. Serving at 5-4, Berrettini moved to the net to close out the first set after 54 minutes.

After failing to convert three break points in the opening set, Ruud took his first opportunity in the second set. The Buenos Aires champion struck multiple forehand winners and took advantage of forehand errors from his opponent en route to a 3-0 lead. Ruud continued to dictate rallies with his forehand and extracted a backhand error from Berrettini to force a deciding set. Ruud fired nine forehand winners in the second set.

Ruud carried his momentum into the third set, breaking serve in the opening game. The Norwegian played with angles to open the court and struck a forehand winner up the line to take the lead for the first time. After falling behind in the score, Berrettini took the initiative and moved to the net to break Ruud for the first time since the opening game of the match.

In the tie-break, Ruud recovered from 2/4 down to claim victory. The Norwegian played with patience from the baseline to extract errors and served well under pressure to earn his 17th victory of the year (17-7).

#NextGenATP Norwegian is son of former World No. 39 Christian Ruud
Editor's Note: This story was originally published on 31 October 2019. Casper Ruud beat Matteo Berrettini on Saturday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final.

#NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud's career is young. But it’s clear that the 20-year-old’s best surface at the moment is clay. He has won more than 60 per cent of his matches on the dirt compared to just 36 per cent on hard courts, and he has not yet earned a victory on grass.

Although some may see that as a weakness for Ruud, the first-time Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier embraces it as a strength. He wants to be the next clay king.

“I’ve always looked up to Rafa a lot and players like him and Thiem, they play with great intensity and in some matches. When you look at them, they’ve kind of already won the match, it seems like, before they walk on the court because their opponent knows it’s going to be so tough to beat them on clay,” Ruud said. “That’s a point I would like to get to in my career. When I step on a clay court, the guy on the other side of the net to think, ‘Oh, this guy is a really, really good player and I’ll have to play my best tennis for three hours if I’ll have a chance to beat him.’”

The way Ruud sees it, he is more comfortable on clay than most #NextGenATP players.

“I feel like I’m one of the younger guys who maybe prefers to play on clay over hard court... I think it’s a good opportunity for me to be able to do well on clay courts the next, hopefully, 15 years because none of the new ones, except Thiem, who is a little older than us, has done unbelievably good on clay yet,” Ruud said. “I’m thinking that could be an open spot to be a new ‘clay-court guy’ among the Next Gen.”

<a href='/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'>Casper Ruud</a> slices a forehand at <a href='/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'>Roland Garros</a>

Ruud, who made the 2017 Rio de Janeiro semi-finals just two months after his 18th birthday, got a chance to flex his clay muscles at Roland Garros this year, making the third round of a major for the first time. But across the net stood 2009 champion Roger Federer, who admitted before the match that he knew more about Ruud’s father — former World No. 39 Christian Ruud — than he did about the #NextGenATP star. Federer won in straight sets, with the third set going to a tie-break.

“I like a lot in his game. Today I saw the clay-courter. But I'm sure he's also got the hard-court game in him, and I think he's going to be obviously easily [reach the] Top 50, Top 20, hopefully soon,” Federer said. “From then on, anything is possible at some stage once you get in the Top 20.”

Ruud began training at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar last July, and he climbed to a career-high of No. 54 in the ATP Rankings just more than a year later. Nadal's best friend, Tomeu Silva, who has travelled with Nadal himself and Jaume Munar, has also spent some time with Ruud.

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The Norwegian has shown in 2019 that he is capable of good results on hard courts, not just clay, making the quarter-finals in St. Petersburg, where he fell in three sets against eventual finalist Borna Coric.

“I like to go around and play heavy on the forehand, which obviously bites more on clay and it’s harder to receive a heavy ball on clay than on hard court,” Ruud said. “It’s not like I feel uncomfortable on hard courts or anything like that, but I think we just figured out that clay is maybe the surface that fits my game the most for now.”

<a href='/en/players/christian-ruud/r219/overview'>Christian Ruud</a> and <a href='/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'>Casper Ruud</a> form a successful father-son duo on the ATP Tour

Christian Ruud, who has climbed higher in the ATP Rankings than any other player in Norway’s history, knows that his son must continue raising his level on other surfaces if he is to continue his ascent on the ATP Tour.

“I think that his goal is to become a top player, and I think he’s dreaming about No. 1 in the world and you have to play well on all the surfaces to do that,” Christian said. “This year the goal was to be Top 100 when we started the year and it was natural for him to pick mostly clay when he had the chance because maybe he has [a better] chance to do well there. But he is showing me that he could also play well on hard courts.”

One of the reasons for Ruud’s 2019 success — and Milan qualification — was his consistency. After making the Rio de Janeiro semi-finals in February 2017, he could not maintain the momentum for the rest of the year, failing to win an ATP Tour match after Barcelona in April. This year, he has earned 22 of his 39 career tour-level wins, including a trip to his maiden ATP Tour final in Houston.

“I think his lowest level has come up a lot. He’s been playing a lot better at ATP events and winning a lot more matches and also beating decent players when he’s not been playing his best, so I think his high level has increased as well as his low level,” Christian said. “I think it’s sometimes difficult when you’re very young and do good results. You have one week where everything is working, like in Rio in 2017… it came a little bit quick. There are still a lot of good players on the Challenger Tour.

"I think this year has been more consistent. He’s just been learning more and getting more experience and everything has improved.”

Ruud will hope that translates to Milan. And although the season-ending 21-and-under event is contested on an indoor hard court, the Norwegian is plenty excited to test himself against the world’s best #NextGenATP stars. He even feels that since it’s not on clay, he’ll be able to play with his "shoulders down", and not feel as much pressure.

“I’m feeling like I’m close to achieving big results, even on hard courts,” Ruud said. “So I just have to keep on training hard and staying focussed and doing the right things and I think good things can happen.”

Medvedev's conqueror overcomes Vesely

Casper Ruud was rock solid on Thursday as he knocked out sixth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3 in 67 minutes for a place in the Hamburg European Open semi-finals.

During an extraordinary run of seven straight games — from 3-3 in the first set to 4-0 in the second set — Ruud won 18 points in a row, from 5-3, 0/15 in the opener to 3-0, 30/0 in the second set.

The 21-year-old Norwegian, who advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final last week at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia (l. to Djokovic), is now 19-8 on the season, which includes winning the Argentina Open crown in February. He will now prepare to face France’s Ugo Humbert on Friday.

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Ruud, competing at a career-high No. 30 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, got Fognini on the run throughout the first set, which turned in the eighth game when Fognini make two forehand errors in a row. Ruud completed the 29-minute set when his Italian opponent hit a backhand return into the net and the Norwegian immediately dominated the first four games of the second set.

Fognini sparked into life and recovered to 3-4, but Ruud tightened up his service placement to maintain a single-break cushion. The match ended when Fognini hit his first double fault.

Ruud, who won 25 of 28 first-service points, also beat Fognini 6-2, 6-2 at the ATP Cup in January.

Young talents own a combined 28 wins and three titles on clay this year

After a shortened European clay swing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the ATP Tour’s top stars are entering Roland Garros with less match practice than usual on the dirt.

With less clay results to analyse, many fans will find it more difficult to predict results in the early rounds in Paris. But two players have still managed to make their mark on the surface with regular success this year.

Casper Ruud and Cristian Garin occupy the top two spots in the 2020 clay wins list heading into Roland Garros. The pair were the standout performers during the ‘Golden Swing’ in February and have also shown great form on the surface in Europe, prior to their journeys to Paris.

Casper Ruud
2020 Clay Titles: Buenos Aires
2020 Win/Loss On Clay: 15-4

The 21-year-old owns more ATP Tour victories on clay than any other player this year. In his opening event of the year on the surface, Ruud made history by becoming the first Norwegian to capture an ATP Tour title at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. Ruud dropped just one set across five matches at the ATP 250, defeating Dusan Lajovic and Juan Ignacio Londero en route to the trophy.

Two weeks later, Ruud reached another championship match on clay in Santiago. The Oslo native came within a set of the trophy, but fell in three sets to #NextGenATP Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild.

Ruud made an impressive return to clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia this month. The 6’0” right-hander, who trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in Mallorca, advanced to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in the Italian capital. Ruud recorded wins against Karen Khachanov, Lorenzo Sonego, Marin Cilic and Matteo Berrettini, before losing in straight-sets to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Last week, Ruud continued his momentum by reaching his fourth semi-final in five clay events this year. The Buenos Aires champion earned three victories, including a straight-sets win against Fabio Fognini to become the first player to reach 15 clay wins on the ATP Tour this year.

Following his run in Hamburg, Ruud climbed to a career-high No. 25 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. As the 28th seed at Roland Garros, Ruud will face Yuichi Sugita in the first round at Roland Garros. Ruud could face third seed and two-time runner-up Dominic Thiem in the third round.

Ruud Buenos Aires 2020 Trophy

Cristian Garin
2020 Clay Titles: Cordoba, Rio de Janeiro
2020 Win/Loss On Clay 13-3

No player started the year with a better record on clay than Garin. The Chilean won his opening 10 matches on the dirt this year, which included title runs at the Cordoba Open and Rio Open presented by Claro.

During his 10-match win streak, Garin’s fighting quality was clear to see. The 24-year-old recovered from a set down on five occasions and survived two final-set tie-breaks to keep his run alive. Garin’s victory in Rio de Janeiro was the biggest win of his career, adding an ATP 500 trophy to his collection of three ATP 250 crowns. All four of Garin’s tournament wins have come on clay.

After losing to Borna Coric in the first round in Rome, Garin returned to his best level in Hamburg. The Santiago-born star eliminated Kei Nishikori in straight sets and posted wins against Kitzbühel runner-up Yannick Hanfmann and Alexander Bublik to reach his third semi-final of the year. In the last four, Garin pushed World No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas to three sets.

Following his run in Hamburg, Garin re-entered the Top 20 in the FedEx ATP Rankings at No. 19. The four-time ATP Tour titlist, seeded 20th in Paris, will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round at Roland Garros. Garin is located in top quarter of the draw, headlined by Novak Djokovic, and could meet 15th seed Karen Khachanov in the third round.