Casper Ruud squeezes past Kokkinakis in Geneva

Casper Ruud did not play his best tennis but he did well enough to take down Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4 7-6(3) and move on.

Ruud won the trophy here last year by defeating Shapovalov in the final and he is moving towards that goal once more. He faced a very inspired Thanasi Kokkinakis who had his forehand and serve working for better parts of this match and it was a tricky match for Ruud. He had an early break point in the set but after saying that Kokkinakis completely shut every down with his serv.e

The forehand was working and Ruud was under pressure in a couple of games but he was able to avoid losing his serve. Eventually, he good a bad serving game from Kokkinakis at 5-4 and he converted his chance to take the opening set. The 2nd set was a very similar one as both players largely dominated on their own serve and neither had many chances.

Eventually, we reached the tiebreak and it was Ruud who took over down the stretch. Kokkinakis missed a clear forehand at 2-3 to make it 2-4 and then he failed to stop play after Ruud's backhand seemingly sailed wide. The Norwegian converted his 2nd set point to win the tiebreak 7-3 and the match 6-4 7-6. Ruud moves to the semifinal.