Hurkacz topples Ruud to set up Montreal final against Carreno Busta

MONTREAL: Hubert Hurkacz shrugged off a slow start to upset fourth seed Casper Ruud on Saturday and book a title clash with Pablo Carreno Busta at the ATP Montreal Masters.

Poland’s eighth-seeded Hurkacz needed two hours to claim a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory over his Norwegian opponent, who had dropped just one set all week.

But his workload was minor compared to that of unseeded Spaniard Carreno Busta, who needed three hours to hold off Briton Daniel Evans 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2.

Carreno Busta had a match point in the second set tiebreaker but couldn’t close out victory for another 50 minutes, finally sprinting away as he won the last dozen points of the match.

Evans sent over his sixth double fault of a long evening to surrender the contest.

Carreno Busta reached his first Masters final, where he’ll be vying to become the first unseeded Canadian champion since Argentina’s Guillermo Canas in 2002.

The last player ranked outside the top eight to win the Canadian crown was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2014, when the men played in Toronto.

This year, Ruud was the highest-seeded player to make it to the semifinals, after world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, second seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece all fell in the second round.

Carreno Busta fired 45 winners, but said he was pleased to get through despite not playing his best tennis.

“It’s important to win these kind of matches, I’m so happy to be in the final,” he said.

“Suddenly this week, my level has been unbelievable.”

Against Ruud, Hurkacz finished with 47 winners — including 18 aces — and 19 unforced errors, advancing on his second match point.

“I was just trying to stay in the match, he was better for the first set and a half,”