Casper Ruud defeats Joao Sousa in the final and wins the title
Norwegian tennis star Casper Ruud described the Geneva final as one of the craziest matches he’s ever played, as he was glad he was someone who ended up on the winning side. Ruud, seeded 2nd in the Geneva main draw, edged out Portugal’s Joao Sousa 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(1) in a thrilling final to successfully defend his title in Geneva.
A year ago, Ruud won his first Geneva title. Now Ruud is a two-time Geneva champion. “It was one of the craziest matches I’ve ever played,” Ruud said in his on-court interview on the ATP website.
“It was a big up and down. Sousa was close to winning and then all of a sudden everything turns around and that’s tennis. It’s always tough for the player who doesn’t win.”
Ruud defeated Sousa in a thriller
Ruud earned the first break of the match in the third game and followed it 5-3 after the first eight games of the match.
In the ninth game Ruud failed to convert any of his three set points and in the tenth game he lost serve again. The first set goes into a tiebreak which Ruud dominated to win the opener. After losing the opener, Sousa bounced back in set number two when he broke Ruud’s serve in game five and held at love for the rest of the set to force a decider.
In the third set, Sousa earned the first break of the set in game five but failed to serve for the match in game 10. Ruud had two plays at Sousa’s serve in game 12 but failed to convert and the final had to be decided in the tiebreak of the third set.
In the tiebreak, Ruud won the opening six points before converting his fourth match point in a three-set win. “This win feels so good, but you have to give Joao a lot of credit because he fought back from a set deficit and played well all week,” added Ruud.
“It was just a matter of a point or two today and thankfully they went in my favour.”