He beat the American 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6), after more than two hours of intense battle
It is the second year in a row that he has reached the semifinals.
The Norwegian Casper Ruud became the first player to reach the semifinals of the ATP Finals on Tuesday. who take part in Turin after beating the American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 4-6 and 7-6 (6), after more than two hours of intense battle.
Ruud stopped his rival Fritz on the center court of the Pala Alpitour in Turin of the tournament that puts the finishing touch to the season, to which the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz could not attend and in which Rafael Nadal is already eliminated, precisely due to the first set that the Norwegian won in this match.
Ruud began the clash strongly and after a ‘break’ in the second game, the Californian’s first serve, took absolute control of the first stake.
The Serbian Novak Djokovic already said it after beating the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas last Monday, players with such a powerful serve can be caught off guard in the first games.
With the advantage of the first set, Fritz, who entered the tournament as a substitute for Alcaraz, was not intimidated and began to use his hammer to score points. He was about to take revenge on Ruud in the same game in which the Norwegian achieved it in the first set, but he waited until the last set, with 5-4 in favor, to certify the break and extend the contest to the last set.
A sleeve in which Fritz delighted the attendees with two magazine points that raised the spirits of the center court in Turin even more,, delivered, full enjoying the show that both tennis players gave to close the day on Tuesday.
The game was very even, had Ruud the possibility of getting ahead on the scoreboard when it marked 2-2, but missed two breaking balls that led the stake to the ‘tie-break’, in which Ruud finally prevailed 8-6, thus reaching the semifinals of the tournament for the second consecutive year.