Ruud saves Cobolli MP, reaches Geneva final

Casper Ruud hauled his bid for a hat-trick of Gonet Geneva Open titles back from the brink Saturday at the clay-court ATP 250.

The second seed saved a match point before rallying past Flavio Cobolli 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) in a semi-final clash that was delayed from Friday due to heavy rain in Switzerland. Having saved the match point on serve at 4-5, 30/40 in the deciding set, Ruud quickly carved out a 4/0 lead in the tie-break before going on to seal victory in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with Cobolli.

🔥 Here we go again 🔥

Casper strives for a third title in Geneva, as he sets up a spot in the final against Machac 💪@genevaopen | #ATPGVA pic.twitter.com/KWwiXVCok1

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 25, 2024

“It was very, very difficult,” reflected Ruud, who converted three of nine break points he earned against Cobolli according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I was one point away from losing. I was just able to hang in there and it was a really tough match. I’m happy to have been able to come back in the third set and pull through. It was a good confidence win for me and I’m looking forward to the final in a few hours.”

The No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings and the 2021 and 2022 champion in Geneva, Ruud will return to court at 3 p.m. local time to take on Tomas Machac in the championship match. The 23-year-old Machac on Friday upset World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final.