Casper Ruud - "The media are too quick to pigeonhole you"
World number seven Casper Ruud is not a fan of restricting players too quickly to a specific course specialist.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Aug 14, 2022, 09:20 pm
Casper Ruud has had a good week in Canada: The seventh in the world rankings reached the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal, but had to admit defeat in three sets to Hubert Hurkacz, who also played well. Before that, the Norwegian took Roberto Bautista-Agut out of the race and inflicted a painful 6:1, 6:2 rebuff on local hero Felix Auger-Aliassime.
And at the beginning of April this year, the 23-year-old from Oslo was even in the final of the 1000 in Miami, where he only found his master in Carlos Alcaraz. Not to forget the tournament victory last October in San Diego, when he didn't give British Cameron Norrie the slightest chance at the ATP World Tour 250 hard court event in the final 6: 0, 6: 2.
"In the end it's still tennis"
And yet the cliché of an absolute clay court player sticks to the northerner. Wrongly, as he stated at a press conference at the Masters in Canada: "The media put you in a drawer too quickly. They focus too much on whether you're a clay or hard court specialist. In the end, it's still tennis . The dimensions of the square are the same."
After all, Rafael Nadal has won Wimbledon twice, the US Open four times and the Australian Open twice: "And we all know that he is the best clay court player of all time." Ruud himself has never considered himself a clay court specialist: "Yes, I prefer clay courts, but I also like hard courts. I feel that I can get good results, for example in Miami this year or at this tournament. I think that I'm able to win a few matches against good players even on hard court."