By Richard Pagliaro | Friday April 1, 2022
Casper Ruud beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-1 soaring into the Miami Open final—and making history as the first Norwegian to reach a Masters title match.
Photo Source: Getty
In his younger years, Casper Ruud dreamed of a career as a pilot.
Today, Ruud jetted through the eight of the last nine games stopping Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-1 to stick a historic landing at the Miami Open.
The sixth-seeded Ruud reached his first Masters 1000 final and made his mark as the first Norwegian to advance to a Masters title match.
Ruud rapped six aces and dropped just six points on first serve shaking off an opening-game break soaring into Sunday’s 1 p.m. final against either defending champion Hubert Hurkacz or 18-year-old Spanish phenom Carlos Alcaraz.
“Well, it means a lot,” Ruud said after a one hour, 33-minute win. “I think the serve helpd me today. I made some clutch serves.”
The former junior world No. 1 raised his record to 13-3 on the season, charging into his 10th career ATP final. Ruud will play for his eighth career title—and second hard-court crown—on Sunday.
In his Masters 1000 debut, the 103rd-ranked Cerundolo delivered a dream run. Cerundolo stunned 16th-seeded Reilly Opelka, 22nd-seeded Gael Monfils, 28th-seeded Frances Tiafoe and 2021 Miami finalist Jannik Sinner. Granted, the Argentinean caught a couple of breaks as both Opelka and Sinner retired from this matches, but still Cerundolo played with passion and purpose throughout the best week of his career before running out of gas today.
Though Ruud is typically typecast as a clay-courter, he’s expanded his horizons on hard courts. Ruud beat Indian Wells champion Cameron Norrie to win his first career hard-court crown in San Diego last October after reaching Masters hard-court quarterfinals in Canada, Cincinnati and Paris before a semifinal surge at the ATP Finals in Turin.
Ranked 95 spots higher than his opponent, Ruud didn’t shrink from the pressure as heavy favorite.
“I thought about it because at the moment I’m the highest ranked player left in the tournament,” Ruud told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “I know that this was a good chance to try to make my first [Masters] final.
“Obviously, it was a tough match. The conditions were very, very humid and quite physical. Lucky I was able to pull through and not play a final set.”
The lowest-ranked Miami Open semifinalist in history, Cerundolo made an opening-game statement scoring the break. Ruud responded breaking right back when the Argentinean netted a bounce smash.
On a steamy day, both men were running around their backhands trying to control rallies with their heavy topspin forehands. Cerundolo showed some pop on that wing pumping a forehand winner down the line that helped him level after eight games.
Though both semifinalists are 23, Ruud has far more hard-court experience than Cerundolo, who landed in South Florida seeking his first Tour-level hard-court win.
Experience was evident in the closing stages of the set. Ruud reeled off eight of the last 10 points. The Norwegian exploited 17 Cerundolo errors in the set, including three in the last game, breaking for the second time to snatch a one-set lead.
“Obviously he's had a great climb in the ranking in the past two, three years,” Ruud said. “When I was a junior, he's the same age as me, I believe, but no one really heard about him because he didn't play too much juniors. Now in the past years he's climbed up well, and this week is probably the best week of his career.”
Taking a bathroom break at the end of the opener, Ruud confronted double break point to start the second. The sixth seeded employed a clever drop shot-lob combination to quiet the uprising and work through a tricky hold.
On one of the stickiest days of the tournament’s second week, Ruud put on a baseball cap, which grew saturated with sweat fairly quickly. Cerundolo again applied pressure earning a pair of break points, but Ruud saved both withstanding a tense eight-minute hold for 2-1.
By then, Ruud repelled four of five break points and set his sights on the boomerang break. Lofting a lob to displace his opponent, Ruud tapped a forehand drop-shot winner wrapping a love break for 3-1.
Coming off the biggest win of his career—a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 triumph over Olympic gold-medal champion Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals—Ruud was striking with authority and taking more initiative in baseline exchanges as the set progressed.
Drilling a diagonal forehand winner, Ruud consolidated with a love hold. The sixth seed won 10 straight points building a 4-1 lead.
Ninety minutes into the match, Cerundolo ballooned a forehand behind the baseline as Ruud scored his second break in a row for 5-1.
Ruud slashed a 123 mph ace down the T sealing his spot in Sunday’s 1 p.m. final with a historic win.