Fourth seed Casper Ruud is through to the French Open semi-finals for a second year running after a hard-fought victory over Denmark’s Holger Rune.

There were none of the fiery antics from last year’s match between the pair, with Ruud withstanding a late surge from Rune to win.

Ruud will play Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a place in the final.

Former world number two Zverev earlier beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 to cap an emotional return to Roland Garros.

The German, 26, left the tournament in a wheelchair last year after badly damaging ankle ligaments in his semi-final against Rafael Nadal, an injury that sidelined him for several months.

Zverev will face his toughest test so far against Ruud, while world number one Carlos Alcaraz plays 22-time major champion Novak Djokovic in the other semi-final on Friday.

Ruud channels ‘underdog’ feeling to win

In a repeat of last year’s quarter-final, Rune got off to a terrible start under the lights, with Ruud breaking in all but one of his service games in the first set as the young Dane hit five double faults and 18 unforced errors.

His focus improved slightly in the second but the unforced errors remained, allowing Ruud to take full control as he took a two-set lead in just 68 minutes.

Sixth seed Rune looked down and out but after a quick break before the third set he came out firing, using the energy of the French crowd to switch the momentum, break early and serve out the set.

Ruud, runner-up at last year’s US Open, earned a break to lead the much-improved Rune 3-1 in the fourth set and despite missing two match points at 5-2, he held serve in the next game to claim victory.

In a fractious last-eight encounter last year, Rune accused Ruud of shouting in his face after the match, but his opponent strongly denied the claims, saying it was a “big lie”.

However, there were no signs of acrimony this time around, with the pair sharing a warm handshake at the net before Ruud celebrated his win.

“I kind of looked at it as though he was the favourite – he won the last time we played and he’s had a better year than me so far,” said Ruud.

“I was feeling like the underdog even though I was seeded number four and he was seeded number six.”

Zverev into last four after ‘most difficult year of life’

Zverev, spurred on by the crowd chanting his nickname ‘Sascha’, was pushed hard by unheralded world number 49 Etcheverry but eventually prevailed after three hours and 25 minutes.

After the pair embraced warmly at the net, Zverev let out a huge roar in celebration at securing a sixth Grand Slam semi-final appearance.

“As I have said before, last year was the most difficult year of my life,” Zverev said.

“I love tennis with all my heart, I love the competitiveness and that was taken away exactly one year ago.

“I’m so happy to be back on this stage and have the opportunity to play for a Roland Garros title again.”

Twelve months ago, Zverev was pushing Nadal to the absolute limit – their two semi-final sets taking more than three hours combined – before the fall that forced him to retire from the match and cost him virtually the rest of the 2022 season.

He faced a tough task against Etcheverry, with the world number 49 not dropping a set on his way to a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final appearance.

Zverev started strongly, breaking the 23-year-old’s serve in the seventh game of the first set and then saving two immediate break-back points before serving it out.

Etcheverry fought back impressively, breaking Zverev’s serve twice on his way to levelling the match and the momentum looked to be swinging in the South American’s favour when he broke in the opening game of set three.

However, Zverev battled back from 0-2 down to win five consecutive games to take the third, before edging a tight fourth set to progress.