Ruud had a total of 15 break opportunities in the match, but only managed to capitalize on the last one. The break paved the way for victory in a match he won 7-6 (9-7), 7-5.
Instead, the opponent only gets two break opportunities.
Denis Shapovalov beat Rafael Nadal on Thursday night, but struggled against fifth seed Ruud. There, two different playing styles meet.
The Canadian left-hander likes to decide early and often scores goals, whereas Ruud prefers to make a number of exchanges before deciding. They had met once before, and even then Ruud emerged victorious in last year’s final in Geneva.
Players follow each other until 4-3. Ruud then had four chances to break Shapovalov, but his opponent managed to save himself.
The first set ended in a tiebreaker. Ruud was lucky to “break” with a lucky net hit to make it 8-7 and was able to serve for the first point.
In the second set, the players also closely followed each other. Ruud broke his first serve at 3-3 but was unable to capitalize on the chance. At 5-5, he had the chance to break nine times before moving up to 6-5. He easily served home sets and matches.
Ruud may meet world number one Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, but first the Serb must beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.
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