Ruud battles past spirited Cobolli to reach Geneva Open final

Casper Ruud, the second seed, edged out Italian Flavio Cobolli 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) to reach the final of the Geneva Open at Tennis Club de Genève, Parc des Eaux-Vives, in a rain-delayed semi-final.

The Norwegian was forced to battle hard against a very impressive performance from his Italian opponent, saving a match point and fighting back from a one-set deficit to eventually clinch victory on a deciding-set tiebreak.

Ruud is looking for his third Geneva Open title in a row, but will face a huge challenge to get over the line in the final.

The second men’s semi-final of the tournament had to be moved over to Saturday as rain halted play after Macha had sensationally knocked out world No Novak Djokovic in the other last-four match.

The result is that Ruud will now have to win twice in one day if he is to capture his second title of the season.

After a physically demanding three-set match, Ruud will have his work cut out for him against an opponent likely still buoyed from the biggest win of his career so far over Djokovic.

Earlier in the tournament, the Norwegian beat Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner (4-6, 6-2, 6-2) and edged out Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 5 seed (6-3, 3-6, 6-4).

Cobolli, ranked No 56, won against Russian Aslan Karatsev (7-5, 6-1), American Ben Shelton, the No 4 seed (4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2) and Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (6-4, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Geneva tournament.

Geneva ATP 250, other semi-final result (Tennis Club de Genève, Parc des Eaux-Vives, clay, EUR 579.320):

• Tomas Machac beat Novak Djokovic (1): 6-4, 0-6, 6-1