Casper “The Ice Man” Ruud is through to the Roland-Garros semi-finals for a third straight year after Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament due to a torn medial meniscus in his right knee.  

Ruud is now one win away from reaching the title match in Paris three times in a row. He finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Djokovic in 2023. 

Ruud, whose clay-court swing also includes titles in Barcelona and Geneva plus a runner-up performance in Monte-Carlo, advanced to the last eight at Roland-Garros by beating Felipe Meligeni Alves, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Taylor Fritz. The Norwegian needed five sets against Davidovich Fokina in the round of 64. 

He wrote the following on Instagram: “Not the way I wanted to advance to the semi-finals here at Roland Garros, but very happy with my win last night and to still be here in Paris and getting another chance to play on Friday! Also sending best wishes and a speedy recovery to Novak and hope we see @djokernole back on court soon.” 

An experienced UTS participant, Ruud played at UTS Oslo earlier this year (Feb. 9-11) and qualified for the semi-finals in front of his home crowd before falling to eventual champion Andrey “Rublo” Rublev. 

The 25-year-old’s 2023 UTS campaign featured two appearances. He was eliminated from the round-robin stage in Frankfurt and then reached the semi-finals at the Grand Final in London (lost to eventual champion Jack “The Power” Draper).