The evening game gave Ruud a loss with the numbers 5-7, 1-6 over the hard Austrian. Thus, Sinner faced the Norwegian tennis professional in a tight race for a place in the round-the-world final in Turin in just over two weeks.
Only this year’s top eight scorers will be allowed to do so. Ruud is currently in seventh place, but several rivals are chasing him. The sinner is one of them.
The 20-year-old Italian won an intense first set between two hard-hitting players. He already beat Ruud in the first game, but with a raw forehand Ruud later responded with the same play and tied at 3-3.
Ruud struggled with weak first servers in Friday’s quarter-finals. Nevertheless, he succeeded for a long time in putting the interior specialist Sinner to the test. He connected an initiative and took a 5-4 lead with a win in a blank game, but on his next serve Ruud again had to be shattered. Sinner then needed three set pieces to fire the first shot.
Invaded
There was a change of scenery in the second set. Ruud immediately found himself in trouble on his own serve, and this time he couldn’t respond. Sometimes the 22-year-old was completely old-fashioned.
Sinner made a firm decision on his way to the quarter-finals when he moved up to 3-0 with another successful break. The youngster got the promotion when he beat Ruud for the fifth time in the game.
On Saturday, he meets American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals, while the second match will be between Alexander Zverev (Germany) and Carlos Alcaraz (Spain).
Rotterace
In the world rankings, Ruud is currently in 8th place, while Sinner is three notches behind him on the list. In the event of an Italian final victory in Vienna, Sinner will win as many titles (5) as Ruud on this year’s ATP tour. No one has any more in 2021.
Friday’s loss means Ruud must continue to collect as many points as possible in the next two tournaments. Next week he will play in Paris at the ATP Masters 1000 level, and after that, matches will be waiting for him in Stockholm.
Right now, Ruud is number seven on the points list for this year’s season. He is listed with 3105 points, but behind him follow Sinner (3015), the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (2955), the Briton Cameron Norrie (2875) and the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (2420).
The ATP qualifiers in Turin run from November 14 to 21.
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