A "crazy" final to come? Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev to play for Bastad trophy in Top 10 duel

Casper Ruud will play for a second Bastad title in three years after coming through the first semifinal at the Nordea Open on Saturday. Andrey Rublev later advanced to set up a final showdown between the top two seeds and pair of Top 10 players.

Ruud defeated third-seeded Lorenzo Musetti, 6-3, 7-5, in one hour and 47 minutes. One break of serve in each set was all Ruud needed to improve his season record to 26-13. The Norwegian has now won nine of his past 10 matches on clay following a second successive appearance in the Roland Garros final.

“Tough conditions once again. It was a bit tricky towards the end,” Ruud said on court. “I’m very happy with my performance and my level.

“It’s great to play almost at home.”

The world No. 4 is looking for his 10th clay-court title and second in 2023. In April, Ruud captured the Estoril Open trophy on his event debut, defeating Miomir Kecmanovic in the final. The 24-year-old is 10-2 in championship matches staged at the ATP 250 level, but will need to rewrite history against Rublev to add to his trophy collection, having dropped all three of their prior meetings on red dirt.

The seventh-ranked Rublev edged out reigning champion Francisco Cerundolo, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 6-3, erasing 10 of the 11 break points he faced. The No. 2 seed converted the decisive break in the seventh game of the third set, then broke again two games later to close out the contest in avenging a 2022 Hamburg defeat to the Argentine.

“It was really tough conditions to play. It was really windy, it suddenly was full of sun,” said Rublev. “By the end of the second set, we managed to play a really good level.”

Rublev is through to his fifth title match of the year. In April, he picked up his first ATP Masters 1000 crown in Monte Carlo with a final-round win over Holger Rune. His runner-up efforts came at the 500-level events in Dubai and Halle, and 250 tournament in Banja Luka.

On facing Ruud, Rublev said, “It’s gonna be [a] crazy match. Last couple of times he beat me. We’re good friends and we respect each other a lot.”