French Open: Casper Ruud battles past Rune to book last four spot

PARIS: Fourth seed Casper Ruud fought his way to the French Open semi-finals by defeating 20-year-old Holger Rune with a score of 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night.

Last year, the two players faced off at the same stage in a contentious match, where Ruud, representing Norway, emerged victorious over Denmark's Rune in four sets.

"Very, very relieved. I came into this match trying to play without pressure but it is not easy playing a big match against Holger who is playing very aggressively," Ruud said.

"In the first set I got a lot of points for free. He made a lot of errors but he fought back. Holger gave me the break early I did it well," said the 24-year-old. "He was the favourite, he won our last match and he has a better year."

"The three sets I won today were a really good level. I feel my game is improving match by match."

Sixth-seed Rune, who had beaten Ruud at the Italian Open last month, littered the court with 26 unforced errors in the first two sets. Agencies

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