Ruud Downs Shapovalov For Geneva Crown

Casper Ruud continues to show why he’s among the top clay courters in the world. Today, the Norwegian No. 1 finished off Geneva claiming his second career title beating Denis Shapovalov 7-6(6), 6-4 in this battle of 22-year-olds meeting for a first time.

“It feels as good to win today as it did in Buenos Aires,” Ruud said comparing his two titles. “I was more mature this week, knowing that I won a title before. It’s something else to do it the second time, but it’s the same great winning taste and winning feeling.”

Behind his serve and big forehand, Ruud took advantage on the first break opportunities of the match in the second set to seal it.

“It was a tough first set, it was very close,” Ruud said. “We were both serving great so there weren’t that many rallies after the serve on both sides because of the high level. But in the tie-break there were some rallies here and there… Happily for me I won the first set, and I think that gave me a little bit of confidence to calm down a little bit – not to relax, but to play more freely.”

Since the restart on the clay, Ruud has made Masters semifinals at Rome, Monte Carlo and Madrid plus semis at Hamburg, Munich and a third round at the French where he lost to Dominic Thiem.

Shapovalov was also seeking a second career title. He was in his first clay final.