Houston (AFP) – Norway’s Casper Ruud outlasted Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7/4) on Saturday to reach the ATP Dallas Open final. World number five Ruud advanced to face the winner of a later semi-final between third-seeded defending champion Tommy Paul of the United States and Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, who ousted fourth-ranked American Taylor Fritz in the second round.
“Second and third set (Munar) really stepped it up,” Ruud said. “He kind of fired up, I played a little bit of a poor game. I went for a little too much, the right play but just made unforced errors. Some really close games in the third.”
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Munar served for the match in the 10th game of the final set but Ruud broke back level to 5-5 as they battled into a tie-breaker. “I know what the feeling is like,” Ruud said. “You can get tight. You kind of see the finish line a few yards in front of you and then you kind of stumble. I’ve done it myself and I was fortunate to be on the right side of it today.”
Ruud hit a backhand down-the-line winner to grab a 4-2 tie-breaker lead, took a 5-3 edge when Munar was wide with a backhand volley, and went to 6-3 on an overhead smash. Two points later, the Spaniard netted a forehand to hand Ruud the victory after two and a half hours, falling to 1-4 all-time against the Norwegian.
Ruud seeks his 13th career ATP title and a third consecutive finals win after triumphs last year at Barcelona and Geneva. Ruud is 4-2 against Paul in career ATP matches and 2-0 against Shapovalov. Ninth-ranked Paul, in his first ATP event as a top-10 player, seeks an eighth ATP final and fifth tour title following Queen’s and a second Stockholm Open crown last year. Shapovalov seeks his eighth ATP final and a third ATP title after Stockholm in 2019 and last November’s Belgrade Open.
© 2024 AFP
