At 23 years of age, the Norwegian qualified for the Roland Garros final, in which he will face his idol Rafael Nadal (N.5).
The Spanish tennis player will fight for his 14th Musketeers Cup on Sunday after winning the first semifinal due to the abandonment of his rival, the German Alexander Zverev, who sprained his ankle at the end of the set when the score was favourable to Nadal.
It will be the first Roland Garros and Grand Slam final for Ruud, while for Nadal, it will be his 14th in Paris (he has not lost any so far), and if he wins on Sunday, he will increase his record for wins in 'big 'tournaments to 22.
"It was an excellent match from my side. Marin started very well, serving very well and playing very fast. Still, I raised my level from the second set, played more aggressively, and had one of my excellent matches of the season," said Ruud in the courtside interview.
Shortly after, he admitted that "as a child, I cried a lot, but later when I grew up, I paid a lot of attention to Rafa, who is my idol because he never complains or gives up on the track".
A few years ago, Ruud spent a season training at Nadal's academy in his native Mallorca, added: "It's incredible when you think that I'm going to finally play against him and do it in a Grand Slam final . I hope that for him too it is to play against a student from his academy".
The meeting between Ruud and Cilic had to be interrupted for a little over a quarter of an hour, the time it took for security personnel to get an activist from an environmental organization who tied herself to the net off the track.
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