Casper Ruud beats Lorenzo Musetti to reach Swedish Open final, will face Andrey Rublev or Francisco Cerundolo

Updated 22/07/2023 at 14:00 GMT

Casper Ruud can look forward to an 18th career final after a 6-3 7-5 straight-sets win over Lorenzo Musetti in the Swedish Open semi-finals. Musetti came into this match with a track record of victories over Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ruud in recent months, but could not find a way past the Norwegian in Bastad. Andrey Rublev or Francisco Cerundolo await in the final.

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Casper Ruud beat Lorenzo Musetti to reach the Swedish Open final and continue his fine recent record on clay.

Ruud prevailed 6-3, 7-5 to conclude the match in one hour and 47 minutes, in a match where Musetti rallied well in the second set, only to lack that bit extra to cause the world No. 4 too many problems.

The No. 1 seed made relatively light work of the Italian to move into his second final at Bastad in the last three years, winning the ATP 250 event in 2021.

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It will also be the 18th career final of the Norwegian’s career, and in it he will take on either Andrey Rublev or Francisco Cerundolo on Sunday.

Ruud certainly enjoys playing on playing on clay with 14 of his 18 ATP finals coming on the surface, including three this year at Estoril, Roland-Garros and now, Bastad.

Musetti represented a potentially tricky opponent given Ruud lost to the 21-year-old at the Paris Masters last year.

The Italian also stunned 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters in April with a thrilling three-set victory.

Ruud drew first blood in the contest after only 43 minutes, claiming a crucial break of Musetti's serve in the sixth game to move 4-2 ahead, after the first five games had all gone to serve.

Musetti put up a bigger fight in the second set, utilising his service game well to stay in touch with Ruud, staving off a break point in the third game and moving 3-2 ahead in the process.

With the next five service games all held, it looked like a tie-break was on the cards. However, Ruud claimed a pivotal break to ultimately pull clear and leave the match firmly within his grasp.

He eventually wrapped up the contest on his third match point in the 12th game to win the second set 7-5.