 Olga Runa vs Kasparud, first semi-final for the men's Rome Open for 2023. Both players are about to fight to get to the stage. Rude entered the tournament as the number four seed and will get a buy in the first round. In the second round he take on Rindinich, there's no problem for Rude, getting through in straight sets, 6-4-6 love. In the third round he take on Bublik, bit of a surprise to get him in the third round, considering we're playing on Clay, this is a very tough match for Rude, having to fight in the third set, eventually winning in a tie break, 6-1-4-6-7-6 to advance to the fourth round. In the fourth round, they take on the unseeded Jera, there's no problem for Rude again, getting through in straights, 6-1-6-3, to advance to the quarter-finals of Rome. In the quarter-finals, Rude will take on the number 24 seed Serendolo, who had just taken out Yannick Sinner in the previous round, and after a close first set, Rude will get through in straights, 7-6-6-4, to advance to another Rome semi-final. Runa started the tournament off as the number 7 seed, and we're going to buy in the first round. In the second round he take on the qualifier Fees, there's no problem for Runa, getting through in straight sets, 6-3-6-3. In the third round he take on the wild cut Vanini, who had taken out Murray and Ketch Menevich along the way, but even with the crowd against him, Runa would get through in straights, 6-4-6-2. In the fourth round he take on another qualifier Popperin, who had taken out Felix Ozealia Simmel on the way, and after dropping the second set, he would fight back to win 6-4-5-7-6-4, to advance to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, Runa would take on the number one Djokovic, who was also the defending champion, and won this tournament multiple times before. After dropping the second set though, but Runa was very impressive. Despite dropping the second set, still able to beat Djokovic in three, 6-2-4-6-6-2, to advance to the semi-finals. They still have played four times before, with Rune holding a head-to-head record 4-0 against Runa. The last time they played was at the French Open last year, which was a four-set match to Rude. Of course, a little bit of fireworks at the end of that one, and a frosty handshake. Having a look at shot quality, thanks to Tennis Insights. See there on the serve, Rude with an 8.0, compared to a 7.7 over the last 52 weeks, compared to Runa. Rude also leads the return with a 7.1 to Runa's 6.4. The forehand and backhand also in Rude's favour, an 8.4 and a 7.6, respectively, compared to the 7.7 and 7.3 from Runa. So Rude does hold the 52-week average, but also he has been playing really well this week. Off the ground strokes, especially on the backhand. Rune was very impressive on the backhand side against Djokovic, winning a lot of the baseline battles. So it should be interesting to see how both these guys do, and see if Rune can maybe ignore the shot quality of Rude over the last year and try and get the win. And the shot quality is calculated in real time by analysing each shot's speed, spin, depth, width, and the impact it has on the opponent. This is a new way of analysing matches, brought to you by Tennis Insights. If you want to check out more, you can go check them out on Twitter, link down in the description. This is such a fun matchup, and it's got a little bit of spice from the last time they played. So there could be a little bit of words exchanged, maybe, I don't know. But I'm going to go with Rune in this one to finally get a win over Rude, the way he played against Djokovic was so impressive. And look, Rude's been really good this week. It's great to see him back in form, but it just doesn't feel like he can probably beat this Rune. This Rune is really, really different from the one that he played 12 months ago, but let me know down in the comments below who do you think is making the final.