Casper Ruud cruised past Andrey Rublev 6-2 6-4 to reach the final at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
The Norwegian became the first Scandinavian for 32 years to reach the final at the event after a comfortable victory.
Rublev was never at the races and despite a mini second set comeback, couldn’t neutralise Ruud’s accuracy.
Ruud will play Novak Djokovic for the title on Sunday evening.
It was actually a positive start from Rublev as he served big and remained patient on serve, to take a 2-1 lead.
However Ruud’s accurate and consistent play from the baseline went up a gear as the opening set went on.
Ruud’s mix of depth and power saw too many unforced errors come out of the Russian’s racket and in the fifth game the third seed edged to a break of serve.
That would be the second of five consecutive games for Ruud as Rublev’s frustrations continued as he couldn’t find accurate power to neutralise the third seed’s consistency.
The world number four cruised to the opening set in 33 minutes with Rublev having work to do.
This followed a similar pattern to the Tsitsipas match from 24 hours ago but the difference for Rublev in this match is that he couldn’t find another level to go to.
Unforced error after unforced error occurred while Ruud’s level continued to go up as the Norwegian played his best match of the week.
Ruud stormed to a 3-0 lead after 11 minutes as Rublev’s frustration turned into tears as it was now a mountain to climb.
Ironically though Rublev played his best tennis with his back against the wall and with the help of a fiery Turin crowd, managed to recover one of the breaks back.
The Norwegian was starting to get a bit tense and make some rash decisions but eventually Ruud closed out the biggest win of his career to set up a final with Novak Djokovic on Sunday evening.
Should Ruud win the final on Sunday he will end the season as the new world number two, overtaking Rafael Nadal.
