Atp Finals in Turin: Ruud beats Rublev and is in the final

He wanted to take revenge from last year’s Nitto Finals defeat, but there was no way. Andrey Rublev, for the first time capable of reaching the semifinal of the tournament among the best 8 of the season, collides with the Norwegian solidity of Casper Ruud capable of beating him 6-2 6-4 in 1 hour and 8 minutes. It will therefore be Casper, beaten in the final at Roland Garros by Nadal and at the Us Open by Alcaraz, to fight for the title against Novak Djokovic. A fair challenge between the player who has grown the most (apart from Alcaraz) this season in terms of tactics, results and personality and the more determined one, Nole, who gave everything this week to end the season with a title. “Thank you so much Turin and Italy!” writes the Norwegian on the camera and then applauds himself: “I worked a lot, with patience and confidence and now I can compete for another great result. Now I’m entering the field thinking I can beat even the best”.

Too many mistakes for the Russian, who got off to a bad start from the start, unable both technically and tactically and finally also psychologically, to put Ruud in difficulty with his game plan. From 2-2 in the first set, Andrey began to drop, force, make mistakes, suffering a first break for 3-2 Ruud who then consolidated on 4-2 and finally snatched once again the serve from Rublev to climb the 5-2 and win the first set 6-2.

The Norwegian, twice Grand Slam finalist, is implacable: he opens the second set with a break, goes up 2-0 and again 3-0, annihilating an increasingly despondent Rublev who had beaten him 4 times out of 5 up to now. At the change of sides, the Russian sits down and puts his hands on his face almost in tears for the inability to react and express his tennis. “Eight games in a row” the number 7 in the world scores in his corner, to underline the devastating partial. At 4-0 for Ruud, Rublev finally manages to keep the bat from under 0-30. With a series of 12 points on serve, the Russian even manages to conquer a break point and reduce the 5-4 deficit before giving up 6-4.