Casper Ruud defends Swiss Open crown

Gstaad: French Open finalist Casper Ruud successfully defended his Swiss Open title in Gstaad with a come-from-behind win over Matteo Berrettini.

Top-seeded Norwegian Ruud lost the opening set 4-6 before bouncing back to take the second set 7-4 in the tiebreak against the second-seeded Italian, who won the title in Gstaad in 2018.

World number five Ruud dominated the deciding set, winning it 6-2 and became the first man since Spain's Sergi Bruguera (1992-94) to defend the title in Gstaad.

"I changed [things] up a little bit in the third set especially, which helped," said Ruud in his on-court interview.

"The games and the points go by here fast. If you are not ready and focussed, you can get broken or you can break, because the conditions allow you to.

"So it was key for me to hold my serve, I did that in the second set. Saving those break points was very important for me and everything went in my favour in the tie-break. So that was a bit fortunate. I just tried to keep that momentum going in the third set and I was able to get a break and play better and better throughout the third set."

This is Ruud's third title of the year after lifting the winner's trophies in Buenos Aires and Geneva. Overall, four out of Ruud's nine career titles have come in Switzerland.

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