“I’m not haunted by what happened last year” – Ruud flying under the radar at Roland-Garros after difficult start to the year

Casper Ruud has endured a difficult 2023 so far.

After a brilliant season last year in which he truly announced himself as one of the world’s leading players by reaching two Grand Slam finals, the Norwegian’s form has dipped alarmingly in the past five months.

Road to Roland-Garros littered with early exits for Ruud

The arrival of the European clay stretch was supposed to signal a welcome turning point in Ruud’s performances, as he is a wonderful clay-courter who feels most at home on this surface.

However, despite taking a title in Estoril and reaching the last four in Rome, the clay-court resurgence Ruud was hoping for never quite materialised as he suffered early exits in most tournaments in the run-up to Roland-Garros.

However, now in Paris, the former world No. 2 has quietly been putting together a series of impressive performances to sneak into the second week of the clay season’s premier event whilst relatively under the radar.

Signs of a Roland-Garros resurgence

Ruud returns to Paris as last year’s runner-up, and was asked whether the memory of losing that final to Nadal has left any mental scars.

“I’m not really haunted by what happened last year in the final honestly. I mean, like I said, I think last year I’m not the first victim to lose to Rafa in the final”, Ruud said after this third round win over Zhang.

“Of course I wish I could have done a little better and so on, but was my first one.”

Instead of being haunted by the loss, Ruud explains that he is using the experience to his advantage and feels he will benefit from having gone through the later round of Grand Slams before.

“Now there are a lot of great players left, and I think that’s what I learned from last year that, you know, the real, real challenge, not tournament, but the real fun starts now, and if you want to be a part of it, you need to play your A game.”

While media scrutiny and the intensity of matches will no doubt ramp up in the coming days for Ruud, he is aware that he needs to keep working on his game as it is still not quite where he’d like it, despite some promising results.

” I think I still don’t feel like I’m playing like, what should I say, error-free, in a way. I still feel like there are things I can improve and I can make less errors than I have done in some moments in my matches.”

Jarry will provide stern test of Roland-Garros title credentials

The world No. 4 will play Nicolas Jarry in the fourth round, a player who is in a rich run of form and beat Ruud en route the title in Geneva the week prior to Roland-Garros.

“Yeah… it’s going to be another tough match. It was close and tough in Geneva. Felt like it could have gone either way. It went his way.

“Yeah, I’m going to hope that the altitude being less here and sea level here it’s gonna help slow the ball down a little bit. He’s playing great. He won three great matches. Going to prepare for a very tough match.”

With Ruud sitting in a half of the draw that has been blown wide open by the early exits of Medvedev and Sinner, he is presented with a golden chance to make Roland-Garros the turning point in a season that has so far been one to forget for the Norwegian.

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