French Open 2022: Casper Ruud comeback win over Marin Cilic sets up Rafael Nadal final at Roland-Garros

Casper Ruud will face Rafael Nadal in the French Open final after beating Marin Cilic 3-6 6-4 6-2 6-2.

Cilic started well and broke to 4-3 and maintained his advantage as he raced into a 6-3 lead to claim the first set.

The 33-year-old Cilic was also in his first semi-final at Roland-Garros, but is a previous winner of the US Open, as well as a losing finalist in both Wimbledon and the Australian Open more recently.

Ruud had reached the semi-finals with a four-set win over Holger Rune on Wednesday, while Cilic had impressively downed Andrey Rublev in an epic five-set duel on the same day.

Ruud, in his first Grand Slam semi-final, might have been nervous but he took a 2-1 lead in the second set with a chance to break. He continued to keep the Croatian on the back foot and secured the second set 6-4. Cilic bore much of the blame for the setback as he missed what seemed to be countless smashes despite his usually sound technique.

The 23-year-old Norwegian did not slip up when the players returned after a short break and took the third set 6-2, before facing a decisive fourth set.

Cilic failed to muster a fightback as he was broken twice to fall 4-1 behind and give Ruud the chance at victory simply by holding his serve for the rest of the match. He found little resistance as he cleaned up to win.

Ruud now faces former world No.1 Nadal on Sunday afternoon.

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