The Norwegian Casper Ruud, 4th in the world, beat the American Taylor Fritz (9th) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (8/6) on Tuesday and thus obtained his ticket for the semi-finals of the Turin Masters, like last year.
The other ticket for the last four will be played Thursday between Fritz and the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (6th). In this Green group, Rafael Nadal (2nd) is already eliminated after his defeats against Fritz and Auger-Aliassime, regardless of his result Thursday against Ruud.
The latter, a finalist this year at Roland-Garros and the US Open, was beaten last year in the semi-finals by Daniil Medvedev, for his first participation in the tournament which brings together the 8 best players of the season.
Ruud rough, but winner
He took advantage of Fritz’s difficulties entering the match to make the entry break, break away 3-0 and maintain his advantage. But the American, who is playing his 1st Masters, had time to set up his game and equalized to a set everywhere by taking advantage of an 11th unforced error from the Norwegian in the set, on his service.
In the 3rd set, the two players held their face-off until the tie-break, where Ruud won on his 3rd match point.
ats/nm
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