“I was struggling a bit with my lower back” – Ruud explains his reasoning for playing in Geneva
Ruud comes to Paris having won the title in Geneva for a third time
AP/Panoramic
No 7 seed Casper Ruud revealed ahead of Roland-Garros on Sunday that he was struggling with a back injury a fortnight ago in Rome.
The Norwegian mentioned that the injury caused him to take some time away from the game following his loss at the Rome Masters. This was a big reason for his desire to play in Geneva so close to the year’s second Grand Slam.
“Rome I was struggling a bit with my lower back so I was maybe not — not an excuse, but part of the reason why I maybe wasn’t able to find my really, really kind of good game or my groove was that I was struggling a bit with some pain in the lower back,” Ruud explained.
“After that not something you typically do, but I took like five days off to try to fix it and let small inflammation get back to normal, and it worked well and building up some good form in Geneva.”
Ruud explains logic of playing in Geneva
Regardless of his early loss in Rome, Ruud is a big fan of playing the week before a Grand Slam.
“To me, when you look at the practical stuff when you come to Paris and all the Slams, if you are there the week before, you have close to 400 or 500 players walking around wanting to practice,” Ruud explained. “In practice what do they do with each other? You play matches in practice. So for me it’s like why don’t you just go and play a tournament? It’s no problem.”
“Geneva is like a three-hour train or 40-minute flight from Paris, so it doesn’t cost me anything to travel from one day to the other to the place. I get real matches, to put it this way, and experience playing matches leading up to a slam, which is one of the most important weeks of the year.
This was the third time he’d won the Geneva Open heading into Roland-Garros.
“I just find it calm, peaceful, and at a 250 it’s a smaller event, and I can focus on all the practice I want to do and also play matches at the same time,” explained Ruud. “I think it’s a good choice. That’s why I’ve been doing it.”
Another deep run beckons for Ruud at Roland-Garros
Heading into Roland-Garros, Ruud has had arguably the best European clay court swing of any player. The Norwegian has two titles – in Barcelona and Geneva – as well as a final run in Monte-Carlo.
“I feel good. This season has been the best start for sure for me, best kind of five months that I’ve ever had to begin the year,” said Ruud. “Then Madrid, Rome were two disappointing results for me, and that’s also a little bit why I decided to go to Geneva.
“I wanted to build up some momentum playing matches again. Obviously winning the tournament is a good feeling. It gives you confidence, but it feels like it’s anyone’s tournament and anyone’s game really.”
Ruud will begin his Roland-Garros campaign on Tuesday, when he takes on Filipe Meligeni Alves in the first round.
