Against all odds, Casper Ruud. He travels modern tennis at full speed and in the midst of that sparkling landscape and the vertigo the Norwegian appears out there against the current, a player with a classic and academic profile, today different from the others. The Nordic is going down another lane. He is not the most mediatic or the most spectacular, much less the protagonist of the higlights that circulate through the mobiles of the young fan, but his game is of the highest pedigree. Ruud is very good, and his antagonistic proposal – even rebellious, in these times of speed – has given him fabulous efficiency this season.
Ruud defeated Karen Khachanov this Friday in the first New York semifinal (7-6 (5), 6-2, 5-7 and 6-2 in three hours) and became virtually the new number one in the ATP, waiting for the final outcome of the tournament; If Carlos Alcaraz does not reach the final today in his arm wrestling match with Frances Tiafoe, he will definitely rise to the top. In parallel, this means that Rafael Nadal will not occupy the throne – the Majorcan had to trust that the Nordic and Alcaraz punctured – and that in the middle of the prevailing monotony today, the most cerebral tennis is still capable of gaining a foothold.
In the case of keeping the place he now holds, Ruud – 23 years old and the son of a tennis player, today his coach – would appear in the books as the fourth Nordic tennis player to reach the top, after the great Swedish trio of totems: Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg. This is his second grand final, since in June he played at Roland Garros; he then he lost to Nadal in three sets.
The Norwegian has 44 victories this year, tied with the British Cameron Norrie and only behind Alcaraz (49) and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Given the new circumstances, the Spaniard will have to win the trophy on Sunday to win the 1. So far, Ruud has won nine titles on the professional circuit, although none of them carry a higher imprint than an ATP 500 (the third prize category). Without any one thousand in the file, but gathering many merits, the finalist –trained at the Nadal Academy in Manacor– waits carefully for what happens this day.
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Source: EL PAIS
