Casper Ruud beat Francisco Cerundolo 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to reach the semifinal in three consecutive appearances of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Ruud had lost two consecutive matches against Cerundolo in Bastaad in 2022 and Barcelona in 2023. The Norwegian player won his first title of the season in Estoril.
Cerundolo saved 11 of the 14 break points he faced.
Ruud converted his third break point in the fourth game after six deuces to take a 4-1 lead. Cerundolo broke back in the seventh game and saved two two break points to hold serve drawing level to 4-4. Both players traded mini-breaks twice to draw level to 4-4 in the tie-break. Ruud won three of the next four points to clinch the ti-break 7-5.
Cerundolo converted his second break point in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Ruud broke straight back in the third game to draw level to 2-2. Ruud earned the crucial break in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead. Cerundolo missed an inside-out forehand wide and Ruud served out the win in the 10th game.
“I am just very happy to play good tennis and be in the semifinals. It’s going to be a very fast one, hopefully”, said Ruud.
Ruud set up a Scandinavian semifinal clash against Holger Rune, who beat Novak Djokovic 6-2 4-6 6-2.
“Holger has improved so much. I played against him a couple of times in 2021 and a couple of times in 2022, and his improvement is just really good. You can see that his confidence is good on court and he really deserves to be where he is at the moment”, said Ruud.
