“It was worth the wait” – Ruud reacts to maiden Masters 1000 crown
The Norwegian looks to continue building form, ahead of the second Grand Slam of the year
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After winning his first Masters 1000 title, Casper Ruud has stated that he hopes to continue building form ahead of Roland Garros.
The Norwegian defeated Jack Draper 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Masters, breaking his five-match losing streak in showpiece matches at Masters 1000 level or above.
“It is a mix of somewhat of a relief and happiness and just pure joy,” commented Ruud, during his post-match press conference.
“I know, based on the last years that I’ve had on tour, how tough it is to do well at the biggest tournaments, and I’ve never been able to get over the finish line as a champion, but today I was able to and this week here in Madrid, so extremely happy and proud, of course, that I was able to stay focused in the tournament throughout the whole match.
“After losing the second set and kind of the momentum switched, I bounced back and played, particularly very happy with the last game that I played and proud that I finished it off in that way.”
Building for Roland-Garros
The two months of the clay-court season is usually the Norwegian’s most successful period of the season, having made his first Masters 1000 final at the 2024 edition of the Monte-Carlo Masters, and reaching two Roland-Garros finals [2022 and 2023].
His position in the draw will be determine by how highly he is ranked, with him re-entering the world’s top 10 as a result of his Madrid title and rising to the position of world No 7.
“Honestly, with this win, I put myself back in a good position when it comes to ranking and seeding,” stated the Norwegian.
“So, in a way, if you want to win a tournament, you can say that it doesn’t really matter what your ranking is because you have to beat every player you play anyways. But it’s a good step forward, and when I come to Paris, I will always have great feeling and memories from the place.
“I think that I’m a good clay court player and best-of-five sets I will be even tougher to beat on clay, kind of that’s my mentality. I know I don’t need to play great every point or every single match, but I know that I can physically be there for a long time and play my clay court game and make it difficult for the opponents. That’s kind of how I felt when I’ve done well there.
“So I will enjoy this tonight and prepare as well as I can for Rome in the coming days, and then after Rome I will, I’m entered for Geneva, and then after that, we’ll see how it goes in Paris. But there’s still some really exciting weeks coming up, and I guess a win here shows the other players also that I’m here to try to do well for the rest of the clay season.”
there’s still some really exciting weeks coming up
Ruud – i was super impressed [by Draper]
Coming into the match, the two had never met, but were firmly the two best players of the event.
The Brit will enter the world’s top 10 on Monday, following a highly-successful last 12 months – including winning Indian Wells.
“I think that he has very little or few holes, if any, in his game,” analysed the three-time Grand Slam finalist.
“Look, he’s a quite tall guy. He’s big, strong, and then he also moves great. He’s able to defend really well and also play aggressive. He moves, like I said, great to be a fairly tall guy. And of course he has that lefty, tricky serve and also everything kind of gets opposite when you’re playing a lefty.
“But I was super impressed in particularly the first and second, or even the whole match, with how he handled my heavy forehand down to his backhand, which is something that I feel like it’s my weapon and my way of kind of damaging my opponent’s game.
“It’s probably my favorite shot, ripping a heavy forehand cross, and he’s just there, like, stepping in and countering, like, even faster sometimes and changing directions. So that’s something I was really impressed with. That’s not easy to do on clay because you will have some wrong bounces and such, but he managed to do that almost all match really well.
“He only hit a few errors that came at a crucial time for him. But, yeah, you’re scared of his forehand because he rips it cross, rips it down the line. You’re also, in a way, scared of his backhand because he can rip and counter from that side as well. So there aren’t much holes in his game that I see or that I feel, especially here on clay, which is maybe his, I don’t know, but maybe his least favorite surface so far of his career.
But he’s definitely got an incredible future on any surface now with the level he’s shown here in Madrid.”
The two players are scheduled to return to the tour at the Rome Masters.
