Norway, Christian Ruud, Grand Slam runner-up: Everything you always wanted to know about Casper Ruud (but never had time to find out) – updated after engagement
A former world No 2, Casper Ruud is the highest-ever ranked Norwegian player and has reached three Grand Slam finals. Here are the answers to some questions you may have about him
Casper Ruud of Norway receives during the award ceremony, the trophy at the Gstaad Swiss Open ATP Tour 250 Series 2021 tournament
Credit: ZM / Panoramic
Who is Casper Ruud?
Casper Ruud is a professional tennis player who competes on the ATP Tour. He was born on December 22, 1998. He became the first Norwegian man to reach a Grand Slam final after finishing runner-up at Roland-Garros in 2022. Since then, he has gone on to reach two more Grand Slam finals, at the US Open in 2022 and Roland-Garros in 2023.
what did casper ruud do at the 2024 atp finals?
Casper Ruud reached the semi-finals of the 2024 ATP Finals, losing to Jannik Sinner 6-1, 6-2 in a one-sided contest.
Ruud won two of his three group matches, beating Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev, but lost to Alexander Zverev. He finished second in his group to qualify for the last four.
what did casper ruud do at the 2024 geneva open?
Ruud won his third Geneva Open title in 2024, beating Tomas Machac in the final to clinch his twelfth career title.
Earlier the same day, Ruud had beaten Flavio Cobolli in a rain-delayed semi-final before lifting the title just hours later.
What did casper ruud accomplish in Barcelona in 2024?
Ruud beat fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas to win the title in Barcelona in 2024. He did not drop a set throughout the week.
what did casper ruud accompLish at the 2024 monte-carlo masters?
Casper Ruud reached his maiden final at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters, beating Novak Djokovic for the first time in his career to make the showpiece event. It was also his first ever win over a world No 1.
He lost in the final, to Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-1, 6-4.
What did Casper Ruud accomplish at Acapulco in 2024?
The Norwegian advanced to his first final at the ATP 500 level with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Denmark’s Holger Rune. Ruud trailed 4-2 (40-15) in the final set before producing a comeback to win.
Ruud lost 6-4, 6-4 in the final to Alex de Minaur, but ensured a move back into the world’s top 10 despite the loss.
Does Casper Ruud play in UTS?
Yes, Ruud plays UTS where he is known as “The Ice Man”. He made his UTS debut in Frankfurt in 2023, winning two of his round-robin matches but failing to qualify for the Final Four.
Ruud became the first man to be awarded a wild card into the UTS Grand Final and played in London in December 2023, reaching the Final Four where he lost to fellow wild card Jack Draper.
He also featured on home soil at UTS Oslo in February 2024, when he played in his home country of Norway for the first time. Ruud reached the semi-finals, losing to the Australian, Alex de Minaur.
what has casper ruud’s father, christian ruud, said about his son?
“I think we’re just, we are more like, almost like friends than father and son,” said Christian Ruud.
“He respects, and I know how it is when you lose. I think he respects that I know how it feels. We have the motto that if you try your best every day, we’ll see what happens, and I think that’s like a good thing to have. We lose together and we win together and I think we just try to analyse and move forward with things that aren’t working.
“Some parents manage to coach their kids and some cannot. I have two daughters and they have more temperament than Casper, especially my oldest daughter. I tried to train her but that was not easy. So I think every person is different and Casper’s kind of a calm person. I think we fit together as father and son and also like coach and player.”
What did Casper Ruud do at the 2023 Laver Cup?
Casper Ruud represented Team Europe at the 2023 Laver Cup for the third time, having also competed at the event in 2021 and 2022. The Norwegian was the only player from Team Europe to score any points at the tournament, with the 25-year-old defeating Tommy Paul 7-6 (6), 6-2 on day two of the 2023 Laver Cup.
Outside of this clash, Team World won the other eight matches, handing Team Europe their heaviest ever defeat at the Laver Cup, 13-2.
What is Casper Ruud’s best performance at a Grand Slam?
Ruud has reached three Grand Slam finals. His first final was at Roland-Garros 2022, where he lost to his idol Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. The Norwegian had reached the third round at Roland-Garros for three years in a row (2019 to 2021) and the third round at the US Open in 2020 before making the round of 16 at the Australian Open in 2021.
The 23-year-old then reached his second Grand Slam final at the US Open in 2022, losing out to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets. His run there lifted him to a career-high ranking of No 2.
“I think I surprised myself for sure,” he said. “I have four finals that stand out for me this year, which are Miami Open and Roland Garros, US Open, now the (ATP Finals).”
He returned to the Roland-Garros final in 2023, beating Alexander Zverev in straight sets in the semi-final, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 before falling to Novak Djokovic in the final.
However, Ruud then lost in the second round of both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2023, both of which were huge upsets.
Ruud’s most recent Grand Slam performance came at the 2024 Australian Open, where he was again knocked out early, losing in the third round to Cameron Norrie.
What happened against Holger Rune at Roland-Garros 2022?
A rare all-Scandinavian quarter-final saw an eighth-seeded Ruud beat Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3. But the encounter will be remembered more for what happened after Ruud officially progressed. Fans noted the frosty handshake, with Rune accusing Ruud of disrespect, something the Norwegian’s camp denied.
It seems like the unpleasantness continued in the locker room after the match but both sides had a different version of what happened.
The two met again in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros in 2023, with Ruud once again winning in straight sets. There was no drama with the behaviour this time, though.
Since then, the pair have seemed to bury the hatchet and are now on friendly terms.
Did Casper Ruud reach the ATP Finals in 2021?
Yes, Ruud booked his spot in the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. Ruud became the seventh player to qualify for Turin by reaching the quarter-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters and the first Norwegian ever to qualify for the ATP Finals.
What is Casper Ruud’s nationality?
Ruud is from Norway and has created history by becoming the first tennis player from his country to reach the top 30, then the top 20 and in September 2021, the top 10 in the world rankings. In February 2020, Ruud also became the first player from Norway to win an ATP Tour title when he lifted the 2020 Argentina Open. He is the only Norwegian man to reach a Grand Slam final, after his run at the French Open in 2022.
Was Casper Ruud’s father also a tennis player?
Yes, Casper’s father is Christan Ruud, the former ATP pro. Christian Ruud turned pro in 1991 and retired in 2001, achieving a career-high ranking of No 39, which was the highest by any player from Norway until Casper broke the mark in February 2020.
Not surprisingly, Casper Ruud did not have to look too far to find a coach for himself – his father Christian is also his coach.
Was Casper Ruud a good junior?
Ruud was the top-ranked junior in the world in January 2016. He won four junior titles, including three Grade 1 titles – Mundial Juvenil de Tenis Barranquilla, Copa Gatorade and the 51st Coffee Bowl – all in 2015. Ruud’s best performance as a junior came in doubles where he reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and French Open.
What is Casper Ruud’s highest ranking?
Ruud rose to a career-high ranking of No 2 after the 2022 US Open. He is by far the highest-ranked Norwegian player in history. You can find his current ranking and ranking history on his ATP Tour profile page.
How many titles has Casper Ruud won in his career?
Ruud has won 12 ATP Tour singles titles in his career. He won his first singles title in Buenos Aires in 2020.
The Norwegian claimed five titles in 2021. During the post-Wimbledon stretch in 2021, Ruud won three tournaments in a row on clay – in Bastad, Gstaad, and Kitzbuhel and then won the hardcourt event in San Diego in September, beating Briton Cameron Norrie in the final. His 14-match winning streak was finally ended by Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Canada.
Ruud won three more titles in 2022 (Buenos Aires, Geneva and Gstaad) and picked up his 10th singles title at Estoril on clay in 2023.
The biggest title of his career thus far has been 2024 Barcelona, where he beat Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-3, one week after losing to him in the final of Monte-Carlo. Ruud then backed this up by winning his third Geneva Open title, his twelfth title in total.
What is Casper Ruud’s best performance at a Masters 1000 event?
In Miami in 2022, Ruud reached the final of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time in his career. Ruud defeated Cameron Norrie and Alexander Zverev en route to the final where he was defeated by Spanish teen Carlos Alcaraz.
In April 2024, Ruud reached his second Masters 1000 final at the Monte-Carlo Masters, beating Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Where does Casper Ruud train?
Ruud has been training regularly at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain since September 2018. In an interview in 2022, Ruud said, “It’s great. You’ve been there and seen the facility and they are growing and expanding with like fifteen new courts. So it’s definitely one of the best ten places to focus on your career in tennis and become one of the best tennis players in the world.”
How much prize money has Casper Ruud won in his career?
As of December 5, 2024, Ruud has won $21,591,822 in career prize money. You can find his latest prize money stats on his ATP Tour profile page.
is casper ruud engaged?
Yes, Casper Ruud is engaged to Maria Galligani. He announced his engagement to Galligani with an Instagram post on November 26, 2024.
“Can’t wait to marry you,” he wrote in the caption.
Ruud and Galligani have been seeing each other since 2018.
Is Casper Ruud on social media?
Yes Ruud is active on social media. Ruud has more than 103,900 followers on X (formerly Twitter), over 7-5,000 followers on Instagram, and on Facebook where has more than 36,000 followers.
