Casper Ruud battles past Novak Djokovic in Monte Carlo semifinals for biggest win of career

Casper Ruud has beaten world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of Monte Carlo, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, for the biggest win of his career.

Not only had he been 0-11 against Top 3 players in his career going into the match, but he was 0-25 in sets in those matches, too.

But he broke out of that second stat by taking the 50-minute first set on Saturday, and eventually the first stat after closing out the two-hour, 17-minute victory over the 24-time Grand Slam champion.

He's the first Norwegian to defeat a No. 1 in ATP rankings history.

“Just super happy, you know, this is a day I will remember for a really long time,” Ruud said in his on-court interview after the match.

“Beating a world No. 1 is something I’ve never done. Beating Novak is something I’ve never done. So very, very happy.

"Just a little bit in a state of shock right now.”

After Ruud closed out that first set, Djokovic rebounded in a big way, storming through the second set in just 38 minutes. And even after Ruud grabbed an early break for 2-0 in the third set—and eventually extended that lead to 4-1—Djokovic wasn’t done then either, winning three straight games to catch up to 4-all in the decider.

But after one last Ruud hold, Djokovic fell behind 0-40 while serving to stay in the match at 4-5, and after fighting off the first two match points, the Serb double faulted on the third to end it.

“I was up in the third and then he came back, you know, kind of typical how good these guys are under pressure,” Ruud said. “And then you’re thinking, ‘Please don’t let this slip away,’ and then 0-40 in the last game, you know that he’s not done—typical Novak to come up with an ace on the first point then a serve-and-volley.

“When he missed the first serve I was thinking he’s saved so many break points in crazy ways, with a huge second serve or something like this, and I just kind of prayed, ‘Just one time, let it be a double fault or something.’ I don’t know, something or someone above listened, and of course it was unfortunate to end in a double fault, but for me it was nice to see that ball was sailing long.”

Both players finished the match with almost even winners-to-unforced errors differentials, Ruud 23 to 24 and Djokovic 31 to 32.

It was Ruud’s first win in six career meetings against Djokovic.

After getting the biggest win of his career on Saturday, Ruud can pull off one more milestone on Sunday—the biggest title of his career.

All 10 of the Norwegian’s tour-level titles to date have come at the ATP 250 level. He’s been to plenty of finals at bigger events—three Grand Slam finals, an ATP Finals final, one previous Masters 1000 final (Miami in 2022) and an ATP 500 final—but always fell one win short.

“I’ve been chasing a big title for a few years now,” Ruud said. “Tomorrow I'll have another shot at it, and I’ll give it my all.”

Up next for the former No. 2 will be former No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who took out the other member of the current Top 2—No. 2-ranked Jannik Sinner—in the first semifinal of the day, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Ruud leads Tsitsipas in their tour-level head-to-head, 2-1, which includes a victory in their only 2024 meeting, with the Norwegian prevailing on hard courts in Los Cabos, Mexico, 6-4, 7-6 (4).