– Slightly surreal – VG

Updated less than 10 minutes ago

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The final will be played on Sunday evening. The opponents in the final will be Carlos Alcaraz or Frances Tiafoe. They meet tonight.

In the quarter-finals, Ruud only needed three sets to win. In the semifinal he had to have four sets and three hours.

He played in the French Open final in June, but then lost in three consecutive sets to Rafael Nadal. That tournament took place on clay, this time on New York hardcourt.

– This is difficult to describe. After the Roland Garros final I had a great feeling, but at the same time I thought it would never happen again. And here I am again a few months later. It’s a bit surreal, says Ruud in an interview with Mats Wilander shown on Discovery +.

Now he is even closer to becoming a world champion. Only three Scandinavian men have done it before: Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg. If Carlos Alcaraz doesn’t win his semi-final tonight, it’s already clear that Ruud will be number one. In the live standings he is already in the lead.

– It was probably a big fight on my part. It was a bit unnerving. Remember this was probably the most important match of our career for both of us, Ruud says in the arena interview.

When the interviewer states that the nerves were not visible, Ruud replies:

– I take a few deep breaths and I think it’s not that important. That’s not the end of the world …

In the stands, father Christian, mother Lele, sister Caroline and girlfriend Maria rejoiced together with the rest of Team Ruud.

Among all the celebrities who followed Ruud’s path to the final from the stands were Jon Bon Jovi, Alec Baldwin and NHL legend Henrik Lundqvist.

– I’m completely shaken. Casper excels in big matches, says Dorthea Faa Hviding in the Discovery + study.

It was a dream start for Ruud, who broke the Russian’s first serve game. But the Russian reacted and the players followed each other 3–3. Then Khatjanov broke again and led 4–3, before the Norwegian returned to 4–4. He served a 5–4 lead, but ended up 6–6 in a set where the players broke up twice.

Ruud won the tiebreak after a crazy exchange of balls for the last set ball. There were 55 hits on the ball – the longest duel of the tournament.

– This is extremely important mentally, because this match will be tied, says Dorthea Faa Hviding in the Discovery + study.

In the second set, Ruud has already broken at 1–1 and again at 3–1, so he was 4–1 ahead.

– Now Casper is directing the show, says Discovery + Svein-Espen commentator L. Olsen.

And the Norwegian won the second set 6–2. The Russian looked tired.

But Khatjanov played well in the third set and kept the serve. At 6–5 for the Russian, he managed to break up for the first time in the set – and that was enough for Ruud to lose the third set.

The fourth set began with Casper Ruud breaking 1–1. The Norwegian broke again at 3–1 and eventually won the set 6–2.

In the quarter-finals, Ruud impressed by winning in three consecutive sets against Italian Matteo Berrettini. The Norwegian played Ruud played the first of four in the semifinals and then rested a bit before meeting Khatsjanov, who surprisingly beat Nick Kyrgios 3-2 in sets after three hours and 39 minutes Wednesday night, now. Norwegian.

Ruud and Khatjanov have met only once before, in Rome in 2020. That time the Norwegian won 2-1 in sets in an ATP 1000 tournament.

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