From brink of defeat to glorious victory: the dramatic tale of Casper Ruud's Geneva Open hat-trick

Albeit not a walk in the park, Casper Ruud found his way to a hat-trick of Geneva Open titles with victory over Tomas Machac in the final on Sunday afternoon. It is a second title of the clay court season for the Norwegian who won in Barcelona and also reached the final of Monte-Carlo.

It is a 12th career title from 23 finals and he now sits at 11-4 on the ATP 250 series which he has become a master of especially on European Clay which he has dominated in recent years. It is a second title of the season for Ruud and he adds to his triumphs in 2021 and 2022 in Switzerland.

He also did so by technically playing two matches in a day. He was on the brink against Flavio Cobolli in the earlier semi-final, but he came back after rain halted play yesterday to seal a dramatic win. Priorly he also saw off Sebastian Baez and Sebastian Ofner. This win of 7-5, 6-3 was his only win of the week not in three sets.

Machac was always in dangerous territory against a player of Ruud's calibre on this surface. The Czech ace was always going to find it tough to follow up his incredible win over Novak Djokovic yesterday and thus proved to be the case.

The match lasted just under two hours with Ruud losing his serve early doors in the opening set. Machac went into a 4-2 and 5-3 lead and missed set points at 5-4 up to seal the opening set as Ruud dramatically turned it around to snatch it 7-5. The second set was more of a simple affair as he took a break at 1-0 up and from there, neither was barely troubled on their respective serves. Ruud swept his first match point to seal the title and after that first set scare, he never really looked back.