Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed, overturned a deficit against Norwegian Casper Ruud to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, joining American Taylor Fritz who defeated fellow countryman Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3 on Monday, to reach the final of the Tokyo tennis tournament (500 points).

Alcaraz, winner of this year’s Roland Garros and US Open titles, found himself trailing in the first set against Ruud, ranked 12th in the world.

However, Alcaraz, who suffered an ankle injury in the Japanese capital, regained his balance in the second set thanks to 9 aces, leveling the score.

In the third set, the Spaniard broke his opponent’s serve once and maintained his lead to finish the match in his favor in two hours and 8 minutes.

Alcaraz became the first player to reach 10 finals in a single year since his compatriot Rafael Nadal did so in 2017.

Meanwhile, Fritz has won two tournaments this year in Eastbourne, England, and Stuttgart, Germany, both on grass courts, and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, the last Grand Slam, this month.

This is the nineteenth time Fritz has reached a tournament final and the third this year, noting he was the Tokyo tournament champion in 2022.

Fritz said after the match, “I played a very good match today, I think I served as well as possible,” after hitting 13 clean aces.

Alcaraz and Fritz have met four times before, with the Spaniard winning three times, but their last meeting was at the Laver Cup on September 20, which Fritz won easily 6-3, 6-2 in 71 minutes.