Davis Cup: Alex de Minaur powers past Emil Ruusuvuori as Australia book place in final, will face Italy or Serbia
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Published 24/11/2023 at 19:50 GMT
Alex De Minaur moved Australia into an unassailable 2-0 lead against Finland after overcoming a plucky Emil Ruusuvuori in straight sets. Ruusuvuori performed admirably, but the world No. 12 had too much quality in the end, as he claimed a fourth consecutive win at the Davis Cup. Lleyton Hewitt's team will face the winners of the second semi-final between Italy and Serbia in Sunday's final.
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Alex De Minaur booked Australia's place in the Davis Cup final with a commanding 6-4 6-3 win over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
Alexei Popyrin had drawn first blood in the semi-final clash against the surprise packages of the tournament, as he claimed a hard-earned 7-6(5) 6-2 win over Otto Virtanen earlier on Friday.
It was then left to De Minaur to do the rest and despite being made to sweat at times, he powered his way past his 24-year-old opponent in one hour and 34 minutes.
The result meant that the doubles match between Harri Heliovaara and Patrik Niklas-Salminen against Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell was not needed, as Lleyton Hewitt's side progressed to the final for a second consecutive year.
It was the end of the road for a Finland side who had enjoyed a memorable run to the last four, after dispatching Argentina in qualifying, while the USA and Croatia were beaten in the group stage, before stunning holders Canada in the quarter-finals.
It felt like a big ask of Ruusuvuori to take this semi-final into a doubles decider, and the task was simply too great in the end.
De Minaur showed his mettle to recover from a tricky start to the match. After losing his opening service game to go 2-0 down he broke back immediately.
The Australian slogged it out to halve the deficit after eventually breaking the Finn’s serve on the sixth break point.
Ruusuvuori was broken twice more to leave the Australian in firm control of the first set, but the Finn was putting up an impressive fight after succumbing on the third break point in a seventh game that went to deuce four times.
The world No. 69 broke De Minaur's serve for a second time to reduce the arrears to 5-3, but it only prolonged the inevitable as the Australian drew first blood on his serve at the third attempt.
Ruusuvuori was looking like a harder nut to crack in the second set, and began with a comfortable hold to 15.
After losing his serve to go 2-1 down, the Finn claimed a crucial hold in an epic seventh game to fight off five break points for De Minaur at 4-3.
However, his brave resistance was curtailed and he surrendered a 15-0 lead to lose the rubber in the ninth game on De Minaur's first match point.
Hewitt’s team will now wait to learn of their opponents in Sunday’s final, as Italy face Serbia in the second semi-final on Saturday.
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