Top seeds dominate in quarterfinals at Nordea Open on Friday

OK, this first part has nothing to do with the tennis matches at the Nordea Open (dressed in sponsor clothing with the name ofa tournament otherwise known as the Swedish Open) in Båstad, Sweden. At least, not specifically what is happening on the court. But do you ever think there’s a slight moment when a player begins to serve and then sees a car – there is a car just slightly up and behind the serving player – that their brain doesn’t compute what is happening and thinks there’s a car that’s jumped the fencing and is about to land on the court? (It’s probably just me that thinks that.)

But on Friday at the Nordea Open, no top players seem stressed by nearly anything that was actually happening. Oh, sure. Third-seeded Lorenzo Musetti lost his first set against Filip Misolic, but then Musetti seemed to realize Misolic was really trying to beat him (how rude!) and Musetti took the last two sets 6-1 6-2.

Top seed Casper Ruud basically had the day off against Sebastian Ofner. Ruud won 6-3 6-4. Ruud was never broken and won 27 of his 33 first serve points. Heck, he won 19 of his 24 second serve points. He likely should have just gone out for late lunch and a beer after the match it was so easy and relaxing. He will play Musetti on Saturday in the semis which should be much tougher.

All you need to know from the Nordea Open quarterfinals

Fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev, dealing with a whole lot of off-court issues this week yet somehow easily winning on Thursday, got beat down by his best friend on the tour, second-seeded Andrey Rublev. Rublev defeated Zverev 6-2 6-3. Zverev now retires to figure out what’s going on in his life while Rublev moves on to the semifinals against Francisco Cerundolo.

Cerundolo won in straight sets against fellow Argentine Federico Coria … But Cerundolo isn’t really at the level that Ruud, or Rublev, or even Zverev is, so if he gets past the semifinals, that would be surprising.

So who wins on Saturday at the Nordea Open? I think Rublev takes out Cerundolo in straight sets, and it won’t be a close two sets. I think Musetti surprises Ruud, though, to set up a Musetti versus Rublev final.