Nadal and Ruud match set for French Open Finals
The Men’s Semi-Final matches are now over. Advancing to the finals is tennis legend, Rafael Nadal. At age 36 he is now one of the oldest men to reach a singles final at Roland Garros.
However, Nadal did not advance to the finals in the traditional way. Nadal was given a Walkover, after his opponent, seed No.3 Alexander Zverev suffered an ankle injury trying to return one of Nadal’s forehand shots.
This was an unfortunate outcome for the German who has been playing well all tournament.
Zverev eliminated seed No.6 Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round to attain his first Grand Slam win against a top 10 player.
Against Nadal, Sascha took an early lead in the opening set, however, the lead was subsequently lost as Nadal was able to bounce back to win the first set, 7-6. The second and last set before the incident, had the score tied at 6-6.
Zverev, in an Instagram post, announced that based on preliminary checks he had torn ‘several lateral ligaments’ in his right foot.
This will likely result in him missing the Wimbledon tournament which will start in a couple weeks.
Marin Čilić and Casper Ruud
Playing superb tennis, Čilić advanced to the Semi-finals after defeating Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals. With that win he became only 1 of 5 active players to reach the semi-finals at all 4 Grand Slam events.
On the Court Philippe-Chatrier, seed No. 8 Casper Ruud and seed No. 20 Marin Čilić fought for the last spot in the men’s finals. Čilić won the first set 3-6, but Ruud quickly found his rhythm to take the second set, 6-4. Ruud also won the 3rd and 4th sets to end the game, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
With this win, Ruud becomes the first Norwegian man to advance to a Grand Slam singles final.
Seed No. 8 Casper Ruud will go up against 21-time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal, in the finals on Sunday.