By Chris Oddo | @Thefanchild | Sunday 4 May 2025
Losing big matches, occasionally, can get a fee in a player’s psyche. evaluation Casper Ruud Because I never allowed him to happen to her.
Before Sunday’s triumph in Madrid, where he won the title of his Masters 1000 daughters, Norwegian had lost three Grand Slam finals, two other masters finals, and one match for the ATP title, while seizing only one sixth.
One remark: none of them was a muted job. Two came against Novak Djokovic (In the ATP final in 2022 and Roland-Garros in 2023), one against Rafael Nadal (Roland-Garros in 2022), and two others against Carlos Alcaraz (Miami and US Open at 2022). He has been on his head, and who would not have been against those players in those days?
What is most important is that Ruud has dedicated his time and continued to increase his game.
Label him as one of the best clay cures in tennis, and no one will argue. Its record 125-35 with 12 titles on the surface since the beginning of 2020 will strengthen the argument. Label him as a guy who cannot win the big one, and not there is an argument against.
Ruud threw his demons like Clay Dust from the only a tennis shoe on Sunday, and although he minimized the importance of victory, it is certain that you will give him juice for the rest of the clay season, and perhaps the rest of his career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6F2ou1HVDM
This week in Madrid when he got another chance to win a big title he knew it was time to put the pedal on the metal. He did this impressively, moving away from growth Jack draper to look for a deserved moment in the sun. Ruud, 26, is the third Scandinavian man who has ever claimed a master’s title, and the first since 2000. He is the first of Norway realizing the feat.
“This was my seventh big final if you all count,” Ruud said. “So seven are, like, a lucky number. I think. So it’s worth waiting in the end. I’ve never been really very close to any of the finals when I look back. I’ve lost most of them in straight groups.”
Ruud called his title “irony” because the theme of his season until last week was one of the underestimation. But he has used his time in Madrid to completely change the shape of his year.
“I still feel like it is a little irony, because if you look at my year this year, there was a really good tournament, which was Dallas, where I reached a final, and besides, it was a loss earlier than I hoped, more loss than hoping.
“But it’s a long season, and I’ve tried to think about it. It is like a marathon, not a sprint.”
Ruud hopes he can hold this pace through the rest of the spring. He plans to play in Rome, Geneva and Roland-Garros, where he is a race twice and, suddenly, a high contender.
But first he will have to process today’s triumph.
“Although I won today, my record in the Big Finals is not good yet, it is 1-6,” he said. “I’ve been in many incredible and extraordinary positions in my career, and I’ve been able to experience some great things and, unfortunately, I was on the losing spectrum of many of those matches, but that’s okay. In many ways, my career has gone better than I thought it was possible.
“Of course I have always dreamed of winning tours like this either Grand Slams or becoming World No. 1, and I have been close enough, but it is not how to serve the match at all times or (holding a superiority) and then drown and lost it in the way.
