Casper Ruud has No 1 slot in sight after US Open rout of Matteo Berrettini

As Frances Tiafoe basked in the glory of his quarter-final upset of Rafael Nadal on Monday night, he was reminded that at some point soon the big three would retire, with more opportunities to come.

He responded with a cynical smile, not missing a beat: “Been saying that for how many years now?” But what is clear is that a new men’s grand slam champion will be crowned at the US Open, and this tournament will provide another glimpse into the future of men’s tennis.

In the first match since Carlos Alcaraz dismissed the final former champion, Marin Cilic, at 2.24am day morning, the 23-year-old Casper Ruud made the first statement of intent as he took apart the 13th seed, Matteo Berrettini, winning 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to reach the semi-final of the US Open for the first time.

Ruud, the fifth seed, will face either Nick Kyrgios or Karen Khachanov next in his second grand slam semi-final of the year after finishing runner-up at the French Open.

Despite boasting more experience at this stage of a grand slam tournament than all other men left in the draw, having reached three previous semi-finals, Berrettini was dire from the beginning, struggling to land backhands and haemorrhaging unforced errors from all parts of his game.

Less obvious, though, was how Ruud helped those errors along with his own industry. He continually locked Berrettini in his backhand corner with his heavy, vicious inside-out forehand, defended extremely well and made a high number of returns along with a high first-serve percentage. “That was a better start than I’ve ever had before in a match,” said Ruud. “Everything was going my way, I was hitting the spots that I needed to.”

By the time Ruud led 6-1, 5-1, he had struck just two unforced errors in the