Casper Ruud
No.4 seed Casper Ruud will face seventh seed Holger Rune in the semi-finals of the Italian Open
Holger Rune has been one of the most in-form players on the ATP tour currently. He achieved his career-best ranking of World No.7 this year after a string of consistent results. Last month, Rune won his first ATP title of the season at the Bavarian International and he is understandably high on confidence. He has been able to carry forward the positive momentum to Rome and is now just two steps away from clinching the title.
Rune received a ‘Bye’ in the Round of 128 and directly played the second round match against Arthur Fils. He registered a comprehensive 6-3, 6-3 victory to progress to the next round. The Danish star then went on to put up another professional display to seal a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win against local favourite Fabio Fognini. He defeated Alexei Popyrin in the following round before pulling off a major upset against No.1 seed Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final. Rune is one of the favourites to go all the way and clinch the title but it remains to be seen if he manages to live up to the high expectations.
Norwegian star Casper Ruud has been at his sublime best in the tournament. He has just dropped one set so far at the Italian Open. Ruud began his journey with a comprehensive 6-4, 6-0 victory against Arthur Rinderknech before registering a hard-fought win against Alexander Bublik.
In the next two rounds, the fourth seed decimated his opponents Laslo Djere and 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets to set up a semi-final clash against Holger Rune. Ruud won the Estoril Open earlier this year and he’ll now be gunning for his second ATP title of the season.
Date – Saturday, 20th May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – To be Announced
Location – Foro Italico
Match details – Semi-final
Rune and Ruud have played each other four times before on the ATP Tour. Both players know each other’s game pretty well. Ruud has got the clear upper hand and leads 4-0 on head-to-head. On paper, the Norwegian is the slight favourite going into this match both in terms of head-to-head and rankings. However, Rune is in great form, and we expect both players to give us a thrilling encounter. We’re predicting an intense match with Casper Ruud eventually edging out Rune in three sets.
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