Casper Ruud races past Zverev, returns to Roland Garros final

PARIS: Emulating past successes is never easy, but Casper Ruud made it appear so on Friday at Roland Garros. The Norwegian charged to his third championship match in the space of five Grand Slam events with a seemingly nerveless 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 semi-final victory against Alexander Zverev at the clay-court major.

Ruud, who was a finalist in Paris a year ago and at the 2022 US Open, delivered a performance full of his trademark clean baseline hitting to overwhelm Zverev and wrap a two-hour, nine-minute triumph on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

"Honestly I just went out there and tried to play without too many feelings, without thinking too much," said Ruud in his on-court interview. "If it's towards the end of the tournament, everyone here playing today has done well anyway. So I tried to play without pressure, without thinking too much, and not to play with too much emotion, if that makes sense.

"Today just went really well. From the beginning to the last point everything was going my way, luckily, and I'm just very happy to win this match."

Ruud converted six of 10 break points he earned to book his spot in Sunday's championship match.

Ruud arrived at Roland Garros with a modest 16-11 record for the year, but had shown recent signs of being back to his best after a difficult start to 2023. The 24-year-old lifted his 10th ATP Tour title in Estoril in April and reached an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Rome in May, and he has continued his resurgence in Paris by dropping just two sets en route to his third major final. Agencies

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