Casper Ruud downs Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach Los Cabos final

 The World No. 2 Casper Ruud produced a near-flawless serving display to defeat defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinal of the Mifel Tennis Open .

The Norwegian will face eighth seed Jordan Thompson in Saturday’s final.

The fourth-seeded Norwegian survived five-set chances in the second set to win in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(4), after having a commanding start to the semi-final.

In the opening set, Ruud did not lose a point on the first serve (14/14), but as the second set progressed, Tsitsipas started to find his range on the return. Before taking a 4/0 lead in the tie-break, Ruud managed to escape from 0/40 and 15/40 in back-to-back service games from 4-5 thanks to his unwavering baseline play.

“It was a really close match, all in all, especially the second set. I was fortunate to save a few set points there and hold him off. I was just a bit lucky, and in the tie-break, I played really well from the beginning. So I’m very happy with the win,” he said in a post-match as quoted by ATP.

Ruud improved to 17-21 versus Top 20 opponents on the surface to reach his 19th tour-level final (10-8) and his fifth on hard courts. Tsitsipas, who was attempting to successfully defend a title for the third time (Monte-Carlo, 2022-2023 and Marseille, 2019-20), has now dropped six straight games against Top 20 opponents.