Jannik Sinner defeats Casper Ruud for the Erste Bank Open Vienna semifinals

In a match with huge implications for the ATP Race to Turin, Jannik Sinner proved much better than Casper Ruud defeating him 7-5 6-2 to move on to the semifinals.

Casper Ruud entered the quarterfinal match against Jannik Sinner as the 7th placed player in the ATP Race to Turin. He will retain his place as 7th for now but losing this match complicates matters for him quite a bit as a win could have enlarged his lead over Sinner in the Race. The Italian was the better player from start to finish and he took the win deservedly.

From the early start Sinner established himself as the aggressor attacking every single ball, quite literally. The Italian was hitting the ball with so much power that even Ruud, an excellent mover had trouble getting to it on time. After losing his serve early, Ruud upped his own aggressiveness to counter Sinner and that proved successful for a while.

He pulled a 1-3 deficit back to 3-3 and continued fending off Sinner but eventually he simply could not hold on. The Italian started hitting the ball even harder and that was simply too much for Ruud 7-5. Sinner continued playing great tennis with Ruud simply not sure what to do. If he played aggressively he committed mistakes.

If he played passively he was getting blow off the court. There was not much he could do as Sinner was simply on fire. Games piled up quickly and 2-0 became 4-0. That almost became 5-0 but Ruud finally got on the board. In the end, the Italian finished it off with 6-1 for a huge win.