Casper Ruud nearly lost this match but the Norwegian player rallied at the last moment to force a 3rd set tiebreak where he outplayed
Joao Sousa to win the 2022
Geneva Open.
Ruud won the Geneva Open last year as well but this title comes after a very hard battled against Sousa who was serving for the match. It started out rather simple for Ruud. He was the better player, he was serving and playing well. It was not the same level he showed in Rome last week but it was good enough. He ran into his first issues at 4-3 where he held his serve for hte 5-3 lead from 0-40 down.
Ruud then squandered 3 set points on his opponent's serve and he lost his serve to make it 5-5 when he served for the set. We went into a tiebreak and Ruud was able to secure it 7-3. Sousa was not going away as the Portuguese player found some magic this week as he tends to do from time to time. Ruud lost his serve in the 2nd at 2-2 and Sousa never let that lead go.
He finished it off with 6-4. Both started off the final set well. Sousa was the first to break through taking a 4-2 lead. He was simply playing better tennis at the moment. He was taking risks and it paid off. He held his serve until 5-4 when it was time to close it out. A bit of nerves and he allowed Ruud to break back. Sousa then saved two match points at 5-6 to force a tiebreak but in it he fell short to Ruud who was superb 7-1.