Casper Ruud’s strong run at the Italian Open has carried him into the semifinals after a hard-fought win over Karen Khachanov in Rome.
The Norwegian, seeded 23rd, took down Khachanov 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 in a match interrupted by rain. He’ll next face Italy’s Luciano Darderi, who is seeded 18th.
Darderi is also putting together an impressive tournament on home soil. He reached the semifinals with a gritty win over Rafael Jodar, coming through 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-0.
Speaking ahead of their matchup, Ruud gave his thoughts on how his game is shaping up this season.
Casper Ruud says he’s a better player now than in 2022
Ruud reflected on his impressive 2022 season, which included two Grand Slam finals and a rise to world No. 2, when speaking to Tennis Channel: “You know, at times, and especially the first and third set today, was some of the best I’ve felt on court in a while, and that was a good feeling.
“Really feeling like I could set up my forehand and hit it with confidence and depth and heaviness and flat it out every now and then.
“So it’s hard to say. Ultimately or generally, I feel like a better player in 2026 than what I was in 2022 when I had my best year. So sometimes results can be a bit coincidental.
“But I always kind of strive to be a better player. And results, they kind of come and go a bit, but I do my best every day, and I’m happy to see that some hard work is paying off this week.”
Casper Ruud pushes through ‘annoying’ rain delay to reach Rome semi-final
Ruud, ranked 25th in the world, spoke about his frustration with the rain delay while breaking down how his match against Khachanov played out.
Speaking about how the match developed, Ruud said: “Yeah, interesting match. And not maybe the most typical of clay court matches where you go like really three close sets and this and that, grinding. But it was a bit interesting.
“I mean, I started great and really took care of my chances in the first set, broke him two times on two break points, and kind of played almost a perfect or flawless set without too many errors and these things.
“So was kind of frustrating or annoying when the rain came in, and I was feeling like I had good momentum. And it was an interesting rain delay today, because it was around two-and-a-half hours. And it obviously didn’t rain for two-and-a-half hours.
“But the last hour, they were trying to fix the court because everything looked to be ready, except for one kind of corner back in the far right corner of the court was filled with water when they took the covers off. So they kept telling us ‘another 10 minutes, another 10 minutes, another 10 minutes’, and then we’ll be ready like three, four or five different times.
“When you hear the ‘be ready in 10 minutes’, you kind of try to keep warm, you try to keep moving, and you don’t let yourself eat too much, even though we probably should have today.
“So you’re just kind of snacking all this small stuff, like a banana, bar, easy stuff to get some energy. But we were kind of on our toes for 50 minutes to an hour before getting out, and it was a little demanding and kind of draining mentally.
“And then finally when we got out I didn’t find the court and Karen definitely did, and stuck it to me. And luckily, I woke up in the third and played some great tennis again to finish the match.”
The clash between Darderi and Jodar also faced a brief halt after smoke from a nearby Coppa Italia football final drifted over from Stadio Olimpico. Sinner is up against Andrey Rublev. Medvedev faces Martin Landaluce.
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