By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday June 2, 2022
Norway's finest defeated Holger Rune to book his first Grand Slam semifinal appearance.
Photo Source: Getty
Norway’s Casper Ruud capped off a great day for Norwegian tennis with the biggest win of his career. On a day that saw a Norwegian reach the final of the mixed doubles competition, the hard-hitting No.8 seed topped Denmark’s Holger Rune in the first all-Scandinavian Grand Slam in Roland-Garros history, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3.
Ruud’s triumph sets a semi-final with Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who defeated Andrey Rublev in a five-set battle on Court Philippe-Chatrier earlier on Day 11.
"These are the matches you dream about playing and hopefully of course even the final, if it's possible," Ruud said in an on-court interview, before looking ahead to his Friday semi-final against Marin Cilic. "I have to be really focussed and bring my 'A' game in the semi-final because Marin has played great all week and it's going to be another tough match."
Ruud hit 55 winners to just 23 unforced errors on Wednesday night, and fought off a strong push from the 19-year-old in the second and third sets to become the first Norwegian to reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal.
Earlier in the day Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri reached the mixed doubles final with partner Joran Vliegen to become Norway’s first Grand Slam finalist of the Open Era.
"A big day for Norwegian tennis," Ruud said in his post-match interview, "because we have also a female player — Ulrikke Eikeri — who made the final of mixed doubles today. She is even one step further than me. She will play for probably her biggest title of her life tomorrow so I wish her luck."
Ruud improves to 29-9 on the season and 20-5 on clay. Lifetime the Norwegian is 94-35 on his favorite surface.
Ruud hit 13 aces to just one against Rune in the three hour and 15-minute contest. He won five of 17 break points, and survived 32 drop shots off the racquet of the Danish teenager.