How calm Casper Ruud got the better of headstrong Holger Rune in all-Scandinavian quarterfinal

WATCH: Casper Ruud defeats Nordic neighbor Holger Rune in the 2022 Roland Garros quarterfinals.

The countries—Denmark and Norway—are near each other. The forehands both hover in the 100-m.p.h. range. And the last names of the players are close to interchangeable.

But that’s about all that Casper Ruud and Holger Rune had in common during their all-Scandinavian quarterfinal at Roland Garros on Wednesday night.

Ruud, of Norway, is an impassive, imperturbable, mature-beyond-his-years 23-year-old who has steadily risen in the rankings, and now qualifies as the quietest and least-well-known member of the ATP’s Top 10.

Rune, of Denmark, is none of those things. He’s 19, and a teenager to the core.

He lopes around the court with big, awkward strides, and when he loses a point, he stares up at his mother and throws his hand in the air, as if to protest the unfairness of it all—“Geez, ma, can you believe this?” His act doesn’t rub everyone the right way. When the match was over, and Rune had lost, he could barely bring himself to stop and shake Ruud’s hand. Ruud, who has no truck with bad-boy behavior, gave him a disapproving shake of his head.

Maybe Ruud is fed up with the kid. He had already played, and beaten, him three times in the last 13 months. Through the first set on Wednesday, it looked like he would beat him again in rapid fashion.

For the first seven games, Ruud did what he does: He powered his forehand into the corners, used his underrated serve to get free points, and played grindingly good defense, secure in the knowledge that he could run all night. Rune, on the other hand, was over-amped and over-hitting.

But if Rune’s teen spirit makes him a polarizing personality, it helps him as a player. He brought a headstrong fearlessness to the court in his wins over Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas, and never deferred to them; like Bianca Andreescu when she burst into the pros as a teenager in 2019, Rune acts as if he’s the star of the show. Unlike his more professional peers, he’s brazen and willing to try anything.

Against Ruud, that meant going to the drop shot over and over again, and charging the net whenever possible—anything to avoid those lung-busting side-to-side rallies that Ruud loves so much. Rune tried 32 drop shots (to Ruud’s 13), was 34 of 49 at net, and hit just one fewer winner than Ruud, 55 to 54, despite Ruud’s 13 to one advantage in aces.

Firing up the crowd when he could, Rune won the second set and pushed Ruud to a third-set tiebreaker. That’s when Ruud put his foot down. He started by working Rune from corner to corner to go up 4-2. Then he hit a drop volley winner for 5-2, a backhand winner that landed on the line for 6-2, and an inside-out forehand winner for the set.

That was it. Rune never caved, and kept looking for ways to win, but Ruud was too strong down the stretch and walked away with a three-hour-and-fifteen-minute 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 win to make his first Grand Slam semifinal.

Ruud’s time has come, and he has patiently earned it. But don’t be surprised if the more impatient Rune’s time isn’t far behind.