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2022 Roland Garros

2022 Roland-Garros: Casper Ruud's Monumental Moment

  • PARIS – Casper Ruud (NOR) had never made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam in 19 attempts leading up to this year’s Roland-Garros.

    Now, in his 20th major appearance, Ruud won his quarterfinal match, then his semifinal, and had his first shot at a Grand Slam title on Sunday,5 June, against Roland-Garros Champion Rafael Nadal. The young Norwegian was unable to usurp the ‘King of Clay’, Nadal, but put up an impressive fight. This is the first time a Norwegian male has made it into a Grand Slam final four.

    CASPER’S RUN UP TO THE FINALS

    Against [20] Marin Cilic in the night session on Friday’s semifinal, Ruud needed a set to settle down. The veteran Cilic was 2-for-2 on breakpoint opportunities and hit 15 winners to Ruud’s three in the opening set. As the match went on, Ruud continued increasing his level. He got the break he was looking for early in the second set to shift the momentum and eventually evened the match at one-set all.

    Ruud showed why he leads the Tour in matches won on clay in the past two years. He played nearly flawless in the next two sets to advance with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory.

    AROUND THE GROUNDS

    The women’s doubles final featured the 2016 champions from France – Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic – against the American duo Jessica Pegula (USA) and Coco Gauff. Garcia and Mladenovic came back from a set down to overcome and beat Pegula and Gauff.

    On Thursday, Ena Shibahara (JPN) won her first major title with a straight-set victory in the mixed doubles division. Shibahara, ranked no. 8 in women’s doubles, teamed up with Wesley Koolhof for the title.

    [9] Lucie Havlickova (CZE) competed in the girls’ singles final on Saturday and won. She then teamed up with her partner Sara Bejlek to defeat Celine Naef (SUI) and Nikola Bartunkova in the doubles title later that day.

  • [3] Gustavo Fernandez (ARG) and [2] Shingo Kunieda (JPN) played in the men’s wheelchair singles final. Kunieda was triumphant and secured his 35th Grand Slam title.

    After playing each other in the singles’ final, Fernandez and Kunieda partnered up to take on Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid in doubles, but lost to the top seed players.