At the Nordea Open on Saturday, Casper Ruud defeated Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-5 to go to his third tour-level final of the year.
Ruud caused Musetti issues when competing on the clay at the ATP 250 tournament in Bastad with the weight and depth of his groundstrokes.
After one hour and 46 minutes, the Norwegian ultimately advanced by making use of powerful topspin and earning the second set’s key break in the 11th game.
No 1 seed Ruud won the Bastad title in 2021.
When he faces Francisco Cerundolo or Andrey Rublev in the final, he will be vying for his second championship at Bastad and 11th of his career overall.
In his head-to-head series versus Musetti, Ruud tied things up at 1-1 with his 20th tour-level victory of the year on clay.
The 24-year-old won his Ninth title on clay and tenth tour-level prize at Estoril earlier this season.
The 21-year-old Italian Musetti was going for the season’s first championship.
He won tour-level competitions in Hamburg and Naples last year.
He is seeded third for his title defence in Hamburg next week.
Check out the highlights from the semi-final clash below.
Ruud began the season by representing Norway and competing in the first United Cup in 2023. He defeated Thiago Monteiro in the tournament’s opening encounter before falling to Matteo Berrettini in the next. The Norway squad was unable to make it past the group stage.
He lost in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open in four sets against Jenson Brooksby.
Ruud expressed his displeasure with the ATP Tour’s lengthy schedule in January 2023 and declared he would take a vacation from the tour following the 2023 Australian Open, with February serving as his pre-season.
After falling to Taro Daniel in straight sets in the second round of the Mexican Open, he had trouble regaining his form during the early North American swing. He was defeated by Cristian Garin and Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Masters, respectively. He fell one position to No 5 in the world rankings as a consequence of his inability to protect his Miami Open 2022 finalist points.
Ruud won his eighth championship at the Estoril Open after defeating the hometown favourite and wildcard Joao Sousa, the defending champion and fifth seed Sebastian Baez, Quentin Halys in the semifinal in a difficult three-set encounter, and Miomir Kecmanovi in the championship match.
He suffered a straight-sets loss while appearing in his third Grand Slam final in Paris.
Ruud did not enjoy the grass swing and seems to be relishing the return to clay.
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