We now know the posters of the semi-finals at Roland-Garros. One will pit world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz against Serbia's Novak Djokovic in search of an unlikely 23rd title in a Grand Slam tournament. The other will pit Germany's Alexander Zverev against Norway's Casper Ruud. This Wednesday, for the last night session of the fortnight, Ruud beat the Dane Holger Rune 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in a remake of a quarter-final, already, a year ago.
Earlier in the day, Zverev, who suffered a serious ankle injury in last year's semifinals, beat Argentina's Tomas Etcheverry (49th) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. "I'm in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros and I'm very happy! As I said before, last year was the hardest of my life. That's why I'm so happy to be back. I'm coming back on Friday (for his semi-final) and I couldn't be happier," said the 26-year-old German. He qualified for his third straight semi-final in Paris.
In the duel of the night, Casper Ruud dominated the Dane Holger Rune more easily than one could think. Last year's finalist against Rafael Nadal, the Norwegian dominated the first two sets by dispatching them 6-1, 6-2. We were going for a victory quickly done well and then Rune found colors. He didn't give up and came back in the third set which he snatched 6-4. The game has rebalanced. But Rune had the bad idea of losing his opening serve in the fourth set and he struggled to recover. Casper Ruud ended up forcing the decision to win in just over 2h30 of match. The Norwegian confirms that his place in the final a year ago was not a coincidence.
