Geneva Open: Ruud beats Cobolli to reach final, will face Machac

Norway’s Casper Ruud will face Novak Djokovic’s conqueror Tomas Machac in the Geneva Open final later Saturday after seeing off a strong challenge from Flavio Cobolli in the semis.

Second seed Ruud, the world number seven, is at home in the Swiss clay court tournament, having won the Geneva title in 2021 and 2022.

He beat Italy’s in-form Cobolli 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) in a roller coaster match on the Parc des Eaux-Vives clay.

The contest between two-time French Open runner-up Ruud and Cobolli, who is on a career-high ranking of 56, was meant to take place on Friday evening but was called off due to persistent rain.

“It was very, very difficult. I was one point away from losing,” said Ruud.

“I just was able to hang in there and it was a really tough match. I was happy to be able to come back in the third set and pull through. It was a good confidence win for me. I’ll just take a shower, rest, have some lunch and then start again,” added the 25-year-old.

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World number one Djokovic is the reigning French Open champion and the Serb admitted he was “worried” about his title defence after falling to 44th-ranked Czech Machac in the Geneva semifinals on Friday.

Djokovic took a late wildcard to play in Geneva in a bid to reverse an alarming dip in form ahead of Roland-Garros, where he has won three times.

But the 24-time Grand Slam champion went down to a 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 loss to Machac, competing in his maiden tour-level semi-final. The last Czech to reach the Geneva final was Tomas Smid in 1987.

The 28-man Geneva tournament serves as a warm-up before the French Open, the second of the year’s four Grand Slams, which begins on Sunday.