On Sunday, April 21, the final match of the ATP-500 tournament took place in Barcelona (Spain). Participants in the meeting were two-time Major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, seeded fifth, and three-time TBS finalist Casper Ruud (3rd).
It is worth saying right away that a week earlier the tennis players fought for the Masters title in Monte Carlo (Monaco). This is only the second time in 32 years since the founding of the ATP Tour that the Barcelona final replicates the Monte Carlo final. For the first time in 2011 the finals of these tournaments were doubled in terms of athlete composition. Then, in both Monte Carlo and Barcelona, the Spanish Rafael Nadal and the Swiss Roger Federer fought for the title. In both encounters, the Terrain King turned out to be stronger. Let us remember that it was Tsitsipas who won the “thousandth” in Monte Carlo this year. In the decisive match of the prestigious competition, the Greek only conceded five games to his rival. Thus, in personal matches the score was in favor of the two-time Grand Slam finalist.
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It is not surprising that it was Stefanos and Kasper who approached the next clay tournament of the season as one of the main favorites. In Barcelona, both players played four games. However, Tsitsipas’ path to the final showdown proved much more difficult than his opponent’s. If in the matches against Sebastián Ofner and Roberto Carballés-Baena the Greek representative did not lose a single game, the 25-year-old Athenian played two very difficult matches in three sets. In the quarterfinals of the Spanish “five hundred” Stefanos had to recover several match points in the match against the Argentine Facundo Díaz Acosta (4-6, 3-6, 7-6). In the semi-finals in Barcelona, Tsitsipas achieved another difficult and determined victory. This time the seventh racket in the world beat Serbian Dusan Lajovic 5:7, 6:4, 6:2.
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Ruud, in turn, advanced much more easily in the tournament standings. Kasper consistently beat the Frenchman Alexandre Muller, the Australian Jordan Thompson, the Italian Matteo Arnaldi and the Argentine Thomas Martin Etcheverry. In all these matches, the Norwegian did not give up a single set to his rivals. On the eve of a new confrontation with Tsitsipas, the 25-year-old native of Oslo shared his opinion about the upcoming meeting and also answered what, in his opinion, prevented him from winning the match with the Greek in the final of the Masters in Monte Carlo ( Monaco), held a week earlier.
“I think we will play better than in Monte Carlo. I have to improve my game against him because Stefanos is a great tennis player. He plays very aggressively, he is good on clay and has appeared several times in finals in Barcelona. He loves to play here. I hope to sleep well at night and be able to play my best tennis. This is what I have to do if I want to win.
I don’t know what it would mean for me to win an ATP-500 tournament because I haven’t won those types of titles yet. But if I manage to win here, I will be very, very happy. This is the goal I strive for in my career.
I think last week I was thinking too much about the final and the title, so now I just want to go out on the field and enjoy what I try to do in each game. And even if it’s the final, you shouldn’t think about it, because if you think for a long time about the importance of the match, of the final, of winning the tournament, you will get nervous and you may not show a good performance. I feel like that’s what happened in the Monte Carlo final. Maybe things will get better if I treat it like any other match. Maybe then on Sunday afternoon I can lift the trophy,” the athlete told Tennis TV.
The start of a new face-to-face battle between Stefanos and Kasper was left in the hands of Tsitsipas. Ruud made a serious unforced error with a forehand and allowed his opponent to break serve early in the match. Tsitsipas then managed to consolidate his 2-0 lead. However, halfway through the set, the Greek representative still lost a game on his serve. The Norwegian scored a break on his second attempt and tied the score at 3:3. Then tennis players won games with their serve. It seemed like the logical conclusion of the game would be a tiebreaker, but Kasper had a completely different opinion. The sixth racket in the world began to act a little more actively during the reception in game 12, made the most important break and thus took the first set with a score of 7:5 in 52 minutes.
Ruud continued to pressure his opponent with his serve. And already in the fourth game of the match, the Scandinavian athlete broke to zero. Kasper had several more opportunities to take service away from someone else. However, in the ninth game of the set, Stefanos was able to escape two break points. In the end, the 25-year-old Oslo native was able to confidently take the final victory 7:5, 6:3. Thus, Ruud won the first ATP-500 title of his career and his debut in the 2024 season. In total, the Norwegian already has 11 trophies in his treasure at ATP tournaments! The victory over Tsitsipas was Kasper’s 29th this year. The three-time Major finalist is the leader in the number of matches won this season.
Next, the tennis players will compete in the Madrid Masters. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
