Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Lorenzo Musetti and Francisco Cerundolo, Seeded number 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively in the Swedish tournament, they reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 clay court tournament in Bastad on Friday. This is the first time this year that the top four seeds in an ATP tournament have reached the semifinals.
ruud (World No. 4), winner of the 2021 tournament, dominated Austrian Sebastian Ofner (World No. 58), who he was facing for the first time, 6-3, 6-4, to open the door to semifinals.
This Saturday, the Norwegian will face the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (16th), who struggled against another Austrian, Filip Misolic, by 4-6, 6-1 and 6-2.
Musetti made losing the first set pay dearly against an opponent he was also facing for the first time: he surrendered only three of the last twelve games against Misolic, number 139 in the world and ranked, where he benefited from withdrawal. of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur in the second round.
The other semifinal will face the Russians Rublev (7th in the world) with Argentina Cerundolo (20th).
Rublev won 6-2, 6-3 in a duel against German Alexander Zverev (19th), in a match that has been the main attraction of these quarterfinals. Rublev, who lost the first five meetings with Zverev, won the last two, in 2023.
After a serious ankle injury kept him off the slopes for six months, the German did not return to competition until January and has yet to regain the form that made him world number 2 at the time of his injury in semi-finals. Roland Garros 2022.
The Russian will face Cerundolo in the semifinals. The world number 20 dominated Federico Coria 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Argentine quarterfinal, and he can still hope to retain his title, the first of his career, won on July 17, 2022 on Swedish clay.
Source: La Verdad
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