“Some of the best I’ve felt on court in a long time”: Ruud and the case for consistency over peaks
Casper Ruud will play his fifth final on the biggest clay stages, Roland-Garros and the three clay-court Masters 1000 events. He becomes only the 13th player since the ATP Tour began in 1990 to have qualified for the final at all four of those tournaments, a list that runs from Alex Corretja and Gustavo Kuerten … Continued
Casper Ruud, Rome 2026 | © Foto FITP
Casper Ruud will play his fifth final on the biggest clay stages, Roland-Garros and the three clay-court Masters 1000 events. He becomes only the 13th player since the ATP Tour began in 1990 to have qualified for the final at all four of those tournaments, a list that runs from Alex Corretja and Gustavo Kuerten in the 1990s through Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Tsitsipas, Alcaraz and Sinner.
With 18 tour-level finals on clay since 2020, Ruud has more than any other player. These are among the cleanest measures of clay-court excellence the modern game has, and his is the latest name on the list.
He himself, asked on Friday what it would mean to face Jannik Sinner in the final, framed the question in a register that has become characteristic of him.
Ruud : “he’s human”
“I just have to try to approach it as any other match, try not to think about the big wave in front, with all the momentum he’s building, all the records he’s breaking,” Ruud said. “At the end of the day, he’s human.”
The line was, in its way, the closing beat of a fortnight in Rome in which Ruud has done something unusual: described his own game with the kind of clarity most players are too pressured to attempt. The three press conferences he has given here – after Lehecka in the third round (6-3, 6-4), after Musetti in the round of 16 (6-3, 6-1), and after Darderi in the semi-finals on Friday (6-1, 6-1) – read as a progression.
Each is more confident than the one before. Together, they chase away the doubts that had built around him through the spring: the calf injury that forced him to retire against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16 at Monte-Carlo in early April, the resulting withdrawal from Barcelona, and the third-round Madrid loss to lucky-loser Alexander Blockx two weeks ago – at the tournament he was returning to defend his 2025 title.
I’m standing here today with the worse ranking that I have had (No.25), I feel like I’m a better player than what I was two, three, four years ago”
Ruud arrived in Rome carrying weeks of physical and tactical doubt. He leaves it, by his own description on Friday, having played some of his best clay-court tennis in a long time.
“It’s funny because when I’m standing here today with the ranking that I have (No.25), which is worse than what I have been, I feel like I’m a better player than what I was two, three, four years ago,” Ruud said. “Ranking doesn’t always kind of reflect on how you feel on court. That’s okay. I’m also realistic, realizing I lost a few matches that maybe I shouldn’t have lost. Quality of tennis is just rising and rising. Even though I feel like I’ve upped my level since two, three, four years ago, other players have done the same, or even more so. They have a better curve than myself.”
On Friday, after the 6-1, 6-1 win over Luciano Darderi that put him in his first Rome final, Ruud was, by his own description, where he wanted to be.
“I came here early, I think I came here on Saturday two weeks ago to prepare and get ready,” he said. “Honestly, the first days I was not feeling the ball great. I was feeling quite tired because the rallies here are a bit different than in Madrid. I was thinking, if I feel a bit tired or feel these conditions, the opponent probably feels the same. So we are all in the same situation.”
Momentum and confidence
Then the structural progress.
“I got off to a good start in the tournament and built some confidence from there. The match with Lehecka I won in the third round was building momentum and confidence for me. From there I’ve been trying to focus on the things that went well there and keep it going, improve even more if I can. Every day I felt a bit better and better.”
And then the sentence that lands.
“The couple of sets against Khachanov and today are some of the best I’ve felt on court in a long time. So that’s a good feeling.”
On Sunday, he plays the player he has named as one of the two unicorns of the men’s game. He has lost his last meeting to Sinner badly (Rome last year, 6-0, 6-1) and was, by his own admission on Friday, “blown out of the court” by Sinner. “You have to not raise your level, but two or three times, in order to hang with him,” he said. “That’s the goal I will think about for tomorrow in practice and the match.”
Sinner is one win from completing the Career Golden Masters. Ruud is one win from his second Masters 1000 title on clay. Both endings are plausible. Well, one of the two more than the other.
