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World No. 8 will play Hurkacz or Alcaraz in the final
Casper Ruud broke new ground Friday at the Miami Open presented by Itau as he reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final, ending Francisco Cerundolo's dream run in the process.

The Norwegian held a 0-3 record in semi-finals at Masters 1000 level heading into his match against World No. 103 Cerundolo. However, the sixth seed produced an aggressive and consistent display on Hard Rock Stadium to ensure he would not fall at the penultimate stage again, triumphing 6-4, 6-1 after one hour and 34 minutes.

“It was not where I imagine myself playing my first Masters 1000 final [on a hard court], but I will take it,” Ruud said in his on-court interview. “It is a great feeling and I am enjoying the city and the tournament. It was pretty brutal today. Very humid, which made the breathing a little tough.”


Ruud has captured seven ATP 250 crowns in his career and advanced to the last four on debut at the Nitto ATP Finals last year. The World No. 8 used all of his big-match experience to his advantage against Cerundolo, who was making his Masters 1000 debut this week.

Cerundolo held a 0-2 tour-level record on hard courts when he arrived in Flordia, but he has had enjoyed a fairytale journey in Miami. The 23-year-old overcame Tallon Griekspoor, Reilly Opelka (second-set retirement), Gael Monfils, Frances Tiafoe and Jannik Sinner (first-set retirement due to foot blisters) en route to the last four.

However, Ruud outplayed Cerundolo in the crucial moments in their first ATP Head2Head meeting, pulling Cerundolo from corner to corner as he broke four times to seal victory.

“It is a great feeling. I am standing here smiling,” Ruud said. “I have had three tough loses in my previous Masters [1000] semi-finals and I thought today was a good chance to reach my first final. I started a little shaky but I was able to pull through and raise my level when I really needed to.”

The Norwegian's dominance in the second set was demonstrated by the Balance of Power, Tennis Data Innovation's new analysis tool. During that second stanza, the metric shows that Ruud played 31 per cent of his shots in attack, compared to 17 per cent for his opponent. In the opening set, the Balance of Power was locked at 18 per cent.

Balance Of Power: Cerundolo vs. Ruud, Second Set
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Ruud, who earned the biggest win of his career by ATP Ranking when he eliminated World No. 4 Alexander Zverev 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the last four, will face reigning Miami champion Hubert Hurkacz or #NextGenATP Spaniard in the championship match on Sunday.

Ruud, who advanced to the semi-finals at Masters 1000 clay-court events in Rome (2020), Monte-Carlo (2021) and Madrid (2021), is aiming to capture his second tour-level title of the season this week, having lifted the title in Buenos Aires in February.

With his victory over Cerundolo, Norway has become the 33rd country to be represented in a Masters 1000 final. Ruud is also the first Scandinavian to advance to a final at this level since Swede Robin Soderling in Paris in 2010.

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In a lively start, breaks were exchanged as both players tried to find their range and brush aside early nerves. Having settled, Ruud began to impose himself on Cerundolo with his water-tight groundstrokes. He hit with great precision and was eventually awarded for his patience in the 10th game of the set when Cerundolo fired long to hand Ruud the lead.

Fuelled with confidence, Ruud put his foot down in the second set as he forced Cerundolo to overhit by striking with great depth. The Norwegian saved all four break points he faced in the set and secured his victory on serve after sucking the energy out of the Argentine with his intensity.

Cerundolo was the first player to reach the semi-finals on his debut at this level since Pole Jerzy Janowicz advanced to the title match in Paris in 2012. The World No. 103 was also the lowest-ranked Miami semi-finalist in the tournament’s history (1985-2019, 2021-22).

Norwegian shares stories following his Miami semi-final win
Casper Ruud is thrilled to be through to his first ATP Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open presented by Itau, but he's also excited about The Masters — one of golf's four majors, which is set for next weekend in Augusta.

"I have always watched The Masters in golf, and obviously it's coming up next week and I can't wait for it to watch on TV again," said the Norwegian, who has a separate Instagram account dedicated to his golfing adventures. "It's fun, because I will probably be here in the country while it's ongoing, in Houston next week at the tournament.

"I enjoy watching both sports [tennis and golf], and I try to watch a lot of golf, especially here in the States. You have your own Golf Channel, so it's easy to watch the tournaments. It's building up to be I think hopefully a good Masters next week."


Ruud also shared that he's played a a few rounds with Rafael Nadal in Mallorca, calling the Spaniard a "very good golfer". The pair has yet to compete on the ATP Tour, though Nadal took the victory on the golf course.

"He's a very, very tough competitor," Ruud shared. "Honestly, a bit tough to play with, because he doesn't say much because he's so focused. Usually on the golf course you are laughing a little bit and joking around. With him, it's no jokes," he said with a smile.

Florida is known as a premier golf and vacation destination, and Ruud was a frequent visitor in his junior days, when he would stay at his grandparents' vacation house in Tampa and compete at Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl during the winter.

"I was never able to do too well unfortunately, but I always enjoyed those junior tournaments and was pretty much like World Cup for tennis in junior tournaments, to play the Orange Bowl and try to win it of course, but I was never able to do so," said Ruud, who reached junior World No. 1 in 2014.

"Then we just stayed over Christmas... Couple of years I tried to play even some Futures down there in January in the Miami area. So I was still fairly young, but I haven't been here too much like the past five, six years, because there are other places you are as a tennis player when you play on the Tour in those months. But I always enjoy coming back here."

Miaimi finalist will rise to new career-high of World No. 7
Casper Ruud was the first Norwegian man to contest an ATP Masters 1000 final Sunday at the Miami Open presented by Itau. Though he was not able to capitalise on a strong start against Carlos Alcaraz in the title match, he leaves South Florida happy with his overall performance at the event.

"On the results side, I'm very happy with my result here in Miami," he said following a 5-7, 4-6 defeat. "Of course disappointing that I couldn't go all the way, but I didn't expect myself to reach the final in the first place, so I can't be too upset about it."

The 23-year-old came out hot against the flame-throwing Spaniard, winning the first three games of the match and leading 4-1 before Alcaraz turned it around in Hard Rock Stadium.

"In our previous match, he was coming at me almost firing flames at me," Ruud said of their Marbella meeting last April, a straight-sets win for the 18-year-old. "So the idea was to try to fight fire with fire, if I can say it that way, and come out and make him a little bit uncomfortable with how hard I would be hitting the ball, because then he wouldn't have time to set up his shots.

"I started very well and hit some good winners, big winners and some big forehands. That was the idea."

Ruud feels both players have improved since that meeting on year ago on the Spanish clay. After crediting Alcaraz's improved physique, he placed the Miami champion alongside Gael Monfils and Alex de Minaur as one of the best movers on the ATP Tour.

"He has kind of that very quick feet movement but also a lot of firepower in his groundstrokes," Ruud assessed. "And he serves not incredible but heavy and good enough, and he can mix it up well, going out wide. He goes kick serve sometimes on the first serve.

"I have seen Rafa talk about him, saying that he has all the ingredients to make a good salad, and I think that describes it very well," he added with a smile.

While Alcaraz became the first Spanish man to win the Miami title, Ruud also made national history by making Norway the 33rd country to be represented in an ATP Masters 1000 final throughout the 33-year history of the series (1990-2022).

"I hope it can be part of putting Norway a little bit more on the map of tennis worldwide," he said of his Miami run. "It's a country that doesn't have too much history in tennis, and we don't have any big events either.

"I have said before that a goal of mine would be to bring an ATP Tour [event] to Norway one time. I hope we can do it, and when you have big results, maybe someone in Norway could have their eyes up for trying to make a tournament in our country... I think that would be a small dream of mine to play actually a tournament on home soil on the ATP Tour, because I never have the chance to do it. Sweden, they have two, so I hope Norway can have one also in the future."

For now, Ruud can set his sights on next week's ATP 250 in Houston. After reaching the championship Miami, the Norwegian will enter the clay swing with a career-high ATP Ranking of World No. 7.

"It's always good to get a new career ranking. So it will be 7 tomorrow. I might have to call Ronaldo, because CR7 is at risk now," he joked. I don't know if we have to do some negotiations and see who can actually have this number."

Norwegian analyses the best clay performers on the ATP Tour
Casper Ruud is flying higher than ever entering the European clay-court season. At a career-high No. 7 in the ATP Rankings, the Norwegian is fresh off reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Miami.

Ruud will happily take a lot of confidence from that run moving onto his favourite surface. This week, he is the fourth seed at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

“It gives me confidence. It shows me I’m able to reach the final of ATP Masters 1000 events,” Ruud told ATPTour.com. “Since we started after the Covid break, I was able to reach three semis of Masters 1000s on clay, and was never was able to reach a final. So to be able to reach a final for the first time [at this level] was a good feeling.

“It’s always fun to play in a final, the most fun obviously is to win them. But to just be in the final and get that experience was something very exciting and motivating for the future, of course.”

Ruud explained why he feels some of the best clay-court players in the world are as good as they are on the surface.

Rafael Nadal
I have practised with him quite a bit and I think he never gives you room to breathe when you play against him on clay. All the shots he produces are very heavy to face because he puts a lot of topspin and they bounce very high. Any time you need to play a shot above shoulder height from the baseline or when you play groundstrokes, it’s tough. It’s tough to get good enough depth back when he plays these heavy shots, so he gets a chance many times to move forward and go for an aggressive shot.

He sets up the point very well and many times the same way. He likes to dominate points with his forehand and I think the majority of his clay-court career, he has been very successful playing his forehand heavy crosscourt to his opponent’s backhand, usually when he plays right-handed players. Most players struggle with his shots and it’s very normal because they’re very heavy. I think this is what makes him so successful.

He plays every point very, very strictly and with order, like it’s his last point. I have heard him say that many times before and that’s the reason he never gives you room to breathe. You don’t get too many free points from him in a match or when you play points [in practice]. With the clay, sometimes it’s more physically demanding because you play longer rallies and longer matches, and he’s there ready for it.

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Novak Djokovic
He plays a little bit differently from Rafa. He plays a little bit further in to the court and the thing with Novak is that his backhand is so pure and so good, that even though many clay-court players like Rafa like to push the backhand of their opponent because it’s tough with the high bounce, with the heaviness, Novak stands against it better than anybody else because he has such good control with his backhand.

It makes it tough to find any holes in his game and his forehand is no weakness either, so he can produce winners and good defensive shots from both sides all the time. He has the package where you can’t really rest in any corner of the court when you play against him because either he plays with his backhand and he will push you with it and also with his forehand he can produce great angles and different shots.

Obviously he’s one of the best movers on Tour. He can get to certain balls and play defence like no other player, so I think that’s what makes him as tough as he is both on hard court and clay. But on clay, he is able to step into the court and take those heavy shots that you try to play at him a little bit more on the rise and play it with good depth back to you.


Dominic Thiem
Dominic is more similar to Rafa. He plays with great intensity and heavy shots, with both the forehand and the backhand, but especially the forehand. he puts a little more spin [on the forehand].

The backhand is also dangerous because he can do many things with it. He can slice it very well, he can play open stance with the one-handed backhand, which is not easy, and then he can also step in and rip it down the line very flat and aggressively. It’s tough to find spots where you can really rest if you have a tough rally because he has all the shots.

His kick serve is very, very good, which helps a lot on clay. He opens the court very well to set up big forehands and big groundstrokes. He’s quick, he moves around well, he makes you play tough, physical rallies from the baseline. He’s obviously one of the tougher players to play on clay and he has proved it. He has played the final of the French Open two times and won big tournaments on the surface.

Carlos Alcaraz
He can play on all surfaces because he plays aggressive, but he also plays with a decent amount of topspin — the forehand even more than the backhand. What impressed me last year when we played on clay was how aggressive he was able to stay and how far into the court he was able to hit most of his shots.

At the same time, like the others I’ve mentioned, he moves incredibly well. He can also play great defensive shots and counter-attack very well. He also has a good kick serve, which opens the court well.


Alexander Zverev
He’s one of the more successful clay-court players of the younger generation. He has won Madrid two times and he has won Rome as well. That’s a pretty good stat to have on clay and I think he doesn’t necessarily play with too much spin, but he returns very, very well. He stands further back most of the time and he doesn’t play heavy in terms of a lot of topspin, but he plays heavy shots because he produces good power, speed and depth pretty much all the time.

You don’t find any holes on the backhand side and of course he also serves well, so he gets some free points with his serve, which is nice on the surface, because usually you need to play more rallies if you don’t have a great serve. He serves well, he returns well and he plays with good depth pretty much all the time, so it’s tough to attack him. That’s where Sascha is dangerous on the surface.

* * *
Those are not all of the players Ruud feels are tough opponents on clay. In fact, one player who troubles the Norwegian might surprise you.

“I have a pretty bad record against Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Maybe he’s not a guy who is talked about too much,” Ruud said. “I also find Diego Schwartzman a tough player on clay. He moves very well, he puts a lot of balls back. His serve is quite tricky in a way and I think he spends a lot of hours on clay every year and likes to play on the surface. He’s beaten Rafa before on clay. Not too many players around the world have done that, but there are also other players who are very good on the surface.

“Stefanos Tsitsipas was a finalist last year at Roland Garros and I’ve played Matteo Berrettini a couple of times on clay, we’ve had some tough battles. Andrey Rublev also, even though you maybe don’t think of him as a good clay-court player, he plays very well and he made the final last year in Monte-Carlo and beat Rafa as well. There are a lot of guys who can actually play very well on the surface.”