Casper Ruud closed the door on one of the week's best stories.

The Norwegian beat lucky loser Nuno Borges 7-6 (5) 6-4 on Friday at the Rolex Paris Masters to reach the semifinals and set up a meeting with second seed Carlos Alcaraz.

The win lasted 1 hour and 34 minutes on Court Central and avenged Ruud's Basel loss to Borges a week earlier.

Tight margins

Borges had held all 25 of his service games in the main draw before Friday. Ruud took the opening tiebreak 7-5 on his third set point then saved two break points at 2-3 in the second set before converting his only break of the match.

Both players finished with 10 aces. Ruud won 68 points to Borges' 65.

Alcaraz next

Ruud is into his 11th ATP Masters 1000 semifinal and his second of the season after the Rome final. He trails Alcaraz 1-6 in their head-to-head with his only win coming in the 2024 ATP Finals round robin.

Borges reached the Paris quarterfinals as the first lucky loser to do so at this event after entering from qualifying.