| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 28 May-11 June |
| Coverage: Live text and radio commentaries of selected matches across BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app |
Fourth seed Casper Ruud is through to the French Open semi-finals for a second year running after a hard-fought victory over Denmark’s Holger Rune.
The Norwegian, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final, won a fascinating encounter 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3.
There were none of the fiery antics from last year’s match between the pair, with Ruud withstanding a late surge from Rune to win.
Ruud will play Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a place in the final.
Former world number two Zverev earlier beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 to cap an emotional return to Roland Garros.
The German, 26, left the tournament in a wheelchair last year after badly damaging ankle ligaments in his semi-final against Rafael Nadal, an injury that sidelined him for several months.
Zverev will face his toughest test so far against Ruud, while world number one Carlos Alcaraz plays 22-time major champion Novak Djokovic in the other semi-final on Friday.
Ruud channels ‘underdog’ feeling to win
In a repeat of last year’s quarter-final, Rune got off to a terrible start under the lights, with Ruud breaking in all but one of his service games in the first set as the young Dane hit five double faults and 18 unforced errors.
His focus improved slightly in the second but the unforced errors remained, allowing Ruud to take full control as he took a two-set lead in just 68 minutes.
Sixth seed Rune looked down and out but after a quick break before the third set he came out firing, using the energy of the French crowd to switch the momentum, break early and serve out the set.
Ruud, runner-up at last year’s US Open, earned a break to lead the much-improved Rune 3-1 in the fourth set and despite missing two match points at 5-2, he held serve in the next game to claim victory.
In a fractious last-eight encounter last year, Rune accused Ruud of shouting in his face after the match, but his opponent strongly denied the claims, saying it was a “big lie”.
However, there were no signs of acrimony this time around, with the pair sharing a warm handshake at the net before Ruud celebrated his win.
“I kind of looked at it as though he was the favourite – he won the last time we played and he’s had a better year than me so far,” said Ruud.
“I was feeling like the underdog even…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at BBC Sport – Tennis…