The 5th seed from Norway won 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2.

After completely dominating the first two sets, he had to step up to secure the win after Moutet played himself out.

– Luckily, I managed to break a few times in the fourth set. “I haven’t changed much, but I can dictate the game more,” Ruud said in an interview with the organisers.

It was the first time Ruud had been in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament on a faster-than-clay surface. This spring she made it to the final at Roland-Garros, but as of Sunday the 4th round was the best ranking in a Grand Slam tournament on hard court or grass.

In the quarter-finals he met Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in five sets.

Moutet is ranked 112 in the world, 105 places behind Ruud. He actually lost qualifying for the US Open, but after the drop still entered the main draw as the so-called “lucky loser”.

The colorful and versatile Frenchman, who writes poetry and releases rap songs, among other things, was impressed when he beat Stan Wawrinka, Botic van de Zandschulp and Pedro Cachin on his way to the fourth round, but stopped there.

Scared from the start

From the start, Moutet looked very good in the match between the two 23-year-olds. The Frenchman, who is several months younger than Ruud, had two break points in the Norwegian’s first service game, but Ruud managed to pull it off. Then Moutet won his first service game cleanly.

It was the last time in that set Moutet could celebrate a game win. Ruud got his first two break points in the 15-40 minutes of the 4th game and capitalized on the first break point when, after a long ball exchange, he ran off the field and hit it off the post and into the net. line.

Moutet threatened to hit back straight away as he led 30-0 on Ruud’s serve, but the Norwegian responded by winning four straight points and moving up 4-1. Then he got another break ball and made it 5-1. After 37 minutes he won the first set 6-1.

Push-ups and penalty points

Thus, the Frenchman punished himself with push-ups after abusing the ball at 40-30 on his own serve when the 2nd set started, but he still limped off in the land game to 1-0. In the next service game, Ruud broke to take a 2-1 lead.

Ruud abused several break points in Moutet’s next service game, but instead broke for 5-2 the next time. Moutet, frustrated, hit the ball out of the stadium for the second time in the game, and received a points penalty for it. Thus, Ruud started 15-0 when he had to serve at home the set. He did it cleanly, and finished with an ace.

Whether Moutet played better or Ruud relaxed a bit when the game looked to be winning, it was even in the third set, and it also worked in the Frenchman’s favor after the tiebreak.

Ruud broke to make it 3-2, but Moutet fought back. He earned his first break point since the first game of the match and returned to 4-4. In the tiebreak, he hit some great winners and won the final three points on his way to 7-4. Ruud double-faulted on the set ball.

Decided

At 2-1 in the fourth set, Ruud got two break points with good play. Moutet won the first after a spectacular ball exchange, but struck in the next, and Ruud led 3-1.

The Norwegian parried two break points before serving for 4-1 after more than three hours of play at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Moutet, constantly complaining about the referee’s decisions, was even unhappy when he didn’t get a point after the ball bounced twice. in his hand. side before he hit him.

At 5-2 for Ruud, he challenged the referee’s patience by complaining that he had been told about the use of time. The Norwegian got three match points on Moutet’s serve and decided the match with the last one after three hours 19 minutes.

Ruud beat Briton Kyle Edmunds in straight sets in the first round, Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven in four sets in round two, and American Tommy Paul in five thriller sets in round 3.

– I was lucky to play today. When my dad played, the hard court was much faster. They have helped us clay players by slowing them down. “I love playing with it, although pebbles are still my favourite,” said Ruud.