Norway’s Casper Ruud ended the record run of lucky loser Nuno Borges on Friday, beating the Portuguese 7-6 (5), 6-4 in 1 hour 34 minutes to reach the semi-finals of the Paris Masters 1000. The World No. 23 will face second seed Carlos Alcaraz, who beat 11th seed Taylor Fritz 6-7 (10), 7-5, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

Ruud is through to his 11th ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and his second of the season, after reaching the final in Rome. He is also into his third Masters 1000 semi-final on hard courts, after Miami and Montreal in 2022. The win lifts him to No. 18 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. It came a week after Borges beat him 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Basel.

How Ruud beat Borges in the Paris quarter-finals Borges had held all 25 of his service games in the main draw before Friday, and the opening set brought no break. The Portuguese held to love to level at 4-4 and again at 6-6. Ruud took the tie-break 7-5, converting his third set point. Ruud faced his only two break points at 2-3 in the second set and saved both. He broke in the next game, converting his first and only break point of the match, and served it out to love at 5-4. Both players hit 10 aces, and Ruud won 68 points to Borges’ 65. The match turned on a handful of points.

Ruud opened his week with wins over Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo, 6-3, 6-2, and Spain’s Rafael Jodar, 6-3, 6-4. He then beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-3 in the last 16. Against Alcaraz, Ruud has a 1-6 record, his only win coming 6-1, 7-5 in the round robin of the 2024 ATP Finals. Alcaraz won their latest meeting 6-1, 7-6 (2) in the last 16 at Indian Wells in March.

Borges, 29, had lost to Alex Molcan 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the second qualifying round before entering the main draw as a lucky loser. He beat France’s Moise Kouame 6-3, 6-1 and Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4. A 6-0, 6-2 win over Peru’s Ignacio Buse made him the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals at the Rolex Paris Masters.

Rolex Paris Masters 2026 quarter-final results

Luca Van Assche d. Rinky Hijikata (Q) 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-5
Ben Shelton (3) d. Tommy Paul (12) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
Casper Ruud d. Nuno Borges (LL) 7-6 (5), 6-4
Carlos Alcaraz (2) d. Taylor Fritz (11) 6-7 (10), 7-5, 6-3

In bold: today’s results.