Swiss Open: Casper Rudd bounces back from a set down to retain the title in Gstaad
Defending champion Casper Rudd of Norway bounced back from a set down to beat Matteo Berrettini in the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad championship at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, on July 24 to successfully defend his Swiss Open crown
Casper Rudd of NorwayThe top seed Casper Rudd pulled off an impressive reversal in the second set tiebreak to beat No. 2 seed Matteo Berrettini 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. The 26-year-old Italian took control of the match early in the game by clinching the tight opening set with his clean forehand strikes.
Both players were equally matched in the second set as seven of the 12 service games were held for love despite Rudd and Berrettini having several breakpoint opportunities. The second set was sent into a tiebreak. World No. 5 Casper Rudd dropped the opening point before clinching five consecutive games to gain a 5/1 lead before serving out the set to send the match into a tiebreak.
Casper Rudd carried on with the winning momentum in the third set to take control of the game with his explosive forehand strikes. The 23-year-old Norwegian served eight aces, won 80% of the points on the first serve and broke the serve of his Italian opponent two times from 11 opportunities to win his ninth ATP title after two hours and 34 minutes of play.
In an on-court interview, Casper Rudd said, “I changed things up a little bit in the third set especially, which helped. The games and the points go by here fast. If you are not ready and focussed, you can get broken or you can break because the conditions allow you to.”
The victory improved the win-loss of Casper Rudd for the season to 35-13, earned him his third you-level title for the season and helped him advance to World No. 4 on the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. The match also broke the 12-match winning streak of Matteo Berrettini, who came into the tournament after winning the titles at the Stuttgart Open and Queen’s Club Championship.
Casper Rudd will now be looking to qualify for Nitto ATP Finals set to take place in Turin, Italy, from November 13 for the second time in his career.
Francisco Cabral of Portugal and Tomislav Brkić of Bosnia also won the men’s doubles title at the Swiss Open after beating Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Philipp Oswald of Austria in straight sets.
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