Casper Ruud reaches his third straight quater final at Roland Garros. Taylor Fritz, lamed by a hamstring injury, ends up giving way 76(6) 36 64 62.
Casper Ruud may not have played his most glamorous match but has proved to be a strong contender for glory in Paris. He has reached that level of self-confidence that enables to constantly see positive and have belief.
“I’m happy and proud that I was able to turn the match somewhat around. He broke me early, and then from there, I just told myself, you know, time to step up, going to do just my best to just get into the zone and stay there,” he said in the press conference after the match.
Both players got off to an edgy start, trading breaks in the second and third game, saving breakpoints in the fifth and sixth. After saving two setpoints at 4-5, Fritz seemed to be taking the set by the scruff of its neck when he soared to a 5 1 lead in the tiebreak and had a set point at 6 5. It wasn’t to be, and Ruud took the set with 3 points in a row.
In spite of first service stats under standards, barely over 50%, Fritz started to dictate the rallies with his superior power from the start of the second set. He broke in the second game and was able to keep his opponent at distance and level the match. Not with ease, since Ruud failed to convert 4 break back points.
The match appeared poised to a marathon arm-wrestle. Suddenly, though, in the fifth game of the third set Fritz started showing signs of pain, a likely hamstring issue, and found himself trailing 52. He left court to be treated, When he resumed the match, he brilliantly broke back and was one game away from equalling the set. It was in that moment that Ruud played his grittiest tennis, retreating further behind the baseline and retrieving any ball at reach. One, two set points, a third, and the fourth one did the job.
Though hampered by injury, Taylor Fritz did his utmost to hang on in the fourth set. He only surrendered in the sixth game, dropping serve. Ruud darted toward victory.
Asked about his feelings in view of his quarter final against Djokovic, he said he considers Djokovic one of the all-time greats on clay and doesn’t believe he will be affected by the fatigue of his last two matches.
“You can definitely argue that he’s the second-best clay court player of all time. I mean, obviously Borg has more titles here than him, but Novak was always close, he always pretty much reached the final and ended up losing to Rafa. And I lost to him last year in the final. You know, physically he’s there. He’s strong. He never breaks down. You feel sometimes that he will, but he never does. I’m just going to expect him to be fresh, ready in two days. Not think too much if he played 9 hours, 12 hours, or 4 hours in the last couple of days. You know, Novak is Novak. He’s going to be ready no matter what.“
