Casper Ruud beats Novak Djokovic to reach Monte Carlo final - ESPN

MONACO — Casper Ruud finally got the better of Novak Djokovic, beating the top-ranked Serb 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 on Saturday to set up a Monte Carlo Masters final against two-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas won the earlier semifinal against a tiring Jannik Sinner 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to hand the Australian Open champion only his second defeat of the season.

Djokovic double-faulted on match point in his first career defeat in six matches against Ruud. The Norwegian player had never taken a set off Djokovic before, including at last year's French Open final.

Djokovic trailed 4-1 in the deciding set but held his next serve and broke a nervous-looking Ruud's serve to love to pull back to 4-3.

At 15-15 in the eighth game, Djokovic turned and shouted an expletive toward someone in the crowd. Chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani urged fans not to call out during a rally and did not issue a verbal warning to Djokovic despite the audible expletive, which was followed by an angry glare.

A sloppy 10th game in the deciding set saw Djokovic trailing love-40 on serve, and the eighth-seeded Ruud received the victory on his third match point.

Ruud and the 12th-seeded Tsitsipas are chasing their first titles of the year and 11th overall.

The record 24-time men's Grand Slam champion Djokovic still hasn't won a title this year and remains on 98 in his glittering career.

Sinner, who has three titles in 2024, looked in control in the deciding set when he led Tsitsipas 4-3 with a service game to follow. But he called for a medical timeout during the changeover, and a trainer massaged his right knee and thigh. Although a smiling Sinner shared a joke with the trainer, things got more serious in the next game when Tsitsipas broke his serve at the fifth