Reigning Geneva Open champion Casper Ruud battled past Reilly Opelka 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 to reach his second consecutive final at the Gonet Geneva Open.
Ruud, who beat Denis Shapovalov in the Geneva Open final, has extended his head-to-head record against Opelka to 4-0.
Ruud has not dropped a set this week. The Norwegian becomes the first player to advance to multiple finals at the Geneva Open since local favourite Stan Wawrinka won this tournament in 2016 and 2017.
Opelka won just 67 % of his first serve points and never earned a break point. Ruud earned two mini-breaks in the tie-break of the first set and converted his only break point at 5-5 in the 11th game and sealed the win with back to back aces. Ruud improved his record to 10-5 on this year’s European clay season. The Norwegian won the Buenos Aires title and reached the semifinal in Rome and the final in Miami.
Ruud hit just four aces to just 12 for Opelka.
“I am looking forward to the final tomorrow. It was a tough match today against Opelka like it always is. The serve he has is incredibly difficult to return. I was able to take the small chances I had and I feel like I served well and was solid with not too many mistakes. That is the key in matches like this”, said Ruud.
Ruud set up a final against Joao Sousa, who cruised past Richard Gasquet 6-2 6-2 with two breaks in each set to reach his 12th ATP Tour final. Sousa has reached the final of the Geneva Open for the second time in his career after his run to the title match in 2015. Sousa won 73% of his service points and converted four of his ten break points.
