Sawt Falasteen - Ruud sails past Medvedev into Madrid Open semis

The Norwegian ousted Taylor Fritz to reach the quarter-finals and secured his first win against the Russian in their fourth meeting.

Strong on clay Ruud only converted two of his eight break points but it was enough to secure victory, with Medvedev, who dislikes the surface, not producing a single break.

Ruud put heavy pressure on Medvedev's serve in the first set, breaking in the fourth game and serving it out.

The second set featured just a single break point, earned and converted by Ruud in the 11th game, enabling him to serve for the match.

Medvedev made 33 unforced errors and committed four double faults on a disappointing afternoon for the world number 10.

Ruud, ranked 15th, will face Francisco Cerundolo or Jakub Mensik in the final four.

Later fifth seed Jack Draper faces Matteo Arnaldi and Lorenzo Musetti takes on Gabriel Diallo in the other quarter-finals.

In the WTA 1000 semi-finals holder Iga Swiatek is up against American Coco Gauff, while Aryna Sabalenka faces in-form Elina Svitolina.

T.Samara--SF-PST