By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday Could 4, 2025
Shedding massive matches, time after time, can take a toll on a participant’s psyche. Credit score Casper Ruud for by no means letting that occur to him.
Previous to Sunday’s triumph in Madrid, the place he received his maiden Masters 1000 title, the Norwegian had misplaced three Grand Slam finals, one other two Masters finals, and an ATP Finals title match, whereas capturing only one set throughout all six.
A caveat: none of them have been choke jobs. Two got here in opposition to Novak Djokovic (on the ATP Finals in 2022 and Roland-Garros in 2023), one in opposition to Rafael Nadal (Roland-Garros in 2022), and one other two in opposition to Carlos Alcaraz (Miami and the US Open in 2022). He’s been in over his head, and actually who wouldn’t have been in opposition to these gamers at these instances?
What’s most necessary is that Ruud has bided his time and continued to develop his sport.
Label him as the most effective clay-courters in tennis, and nobody will argue. His 125-35 file with 12 titles on the floor for the reason that begin of 2020 will strengthen the argument. Label him as a man who cannot win the massive one, and no there is a counter argument.
Ruud dropped his demons like clay mud from the only of a tennis shoe on Sunday, and although he downplayed the significance of the win, it’s certain to present him juice for the remainder of the clay season, and perhaps the remainder of his profession.
This week in Madrid when he obtained one other probability to win an enormous title he knew it was time to place the pedal to the metallic. He did so in spectacular vogue, pulling away from surging Jack Draper to assert a well-deserved second within the solar. Ruud, 26, is the third Scandinavian man to ever declare a Masters title, and the primary since 2000. He is the primary from Norway to perform the feat.
“This was my seventh massive ultimate, if you happen to rely all of them,” Ruud mentioned. “So seven is, like, a fortunate quantity, I assume. So it was definitely worth the wait ultimately. I’ve by no means actually been too shut in any of the finals after I look again. I’ve misplaced the vast majority of them in straight units.”
Ruud known as his title “ironic” as a result of the theme of his season till final week has been one in every of underachieving. However he has used his time in Madrid to utterly change the form of his 12 months.
“I nonetheless form of really feel like it’s kind of ironic, as a result of if you happen to have a look at my 12 months this 12 months, there’s been one actually good match, which was Dallas, the place I reached a ultimate, and apart from that, it has been earlier losses than I hoped, extra losses than I hoped.
“However it’s a protracted season, and I’ve tried to consider that. It is like a marathon, not a dash.”
Ruud hopes he can preserve this tempo by the remainder of the spring. He plans to play in Rome, Geneva and Roland-Garros, the place he’s a two-time runner up and, out of the blue, a prime contender.
However first he’ll must course of as we speak’s triumph.
“Despite the fact that I received as we speak, my file in massive finals continues to be not good, it is 1-6,” he mentioned. “I have been in lots of unbelievable and unbelievable positions in my profession, and I have been in a position to expertise some nice issues and, sadly, have been on the dropping spectrum of a lot of these matches, however that is okay. In some ways, my profession has gone higher than perhaps I assumed was attainable typically.
“In fact I all the time dreamed about profitable tournaments like this or Grand Slams or changing into world No. 1, and I have been pretty shut, but it surely’s not like I used to be serving for the match anytime or [holding a lead] after which choked and misplaced in a means. So I’ve simply performed that have been higher than me, and I’ve tried to study from that, and I feel that someday there’ll come one other alternative and perhaps I can seize it and, I assume, that was the important thing to the victory as we speak.”
