Ruud taking inspiration from Nadal’s career to become a better hard court player

The Norwegian says the way Nadal adapted his game from clay to faster surfaces gives him beliefe he can do the same

Casper Ruud and Rafael Nadal, Bastad 2024 | © Zuma / Panoramic

November 17, 2024

Casper Ruud has had plenty of good moments on hard courts in his career to date, none more so than when he reached the US Open final in 2022.

But the Norwegian knows hard courts, and in particular, indoor hard courts, have been a tough hunting ground for him so far. The good news is he has an idea of how to fix it, and it involves Rafael Nadal.

“I’ve definitely been kind of shaped by watching a lot of Rafa tennis,” Ruud said at the ATP Finals, where he bucked a losing streak to make the semi-finals. “Also a player we saw yesterday or the other day retired, Domi (Thiem). He’s been the closest to Rafa, after Rafa, the way he played on clay. I really loved watching those guys play. I find that way of playing tennis really nice. I like it myself.

“I think if you look at the top 10 or we can say even top 100, I think the minority of the top 100 are players that kind of prefer to play on clay, let’s just say. I really like it. I think it’s a soothing surface to my game definitely. There’s always a lot of talk about surface and so on.”

LEARNING FROM WATCHING NADAL ON CLAY

Nadal began life as a clay-court expert, and of course he remained an expert on clay throughout his career. But the Spaniard also learned to adjust on hard courts, adapting his game to win the sport’s biggest titles. Ruud said he learned from watching Nadal on both clay and hard.

“Watching Rafa play good tennis on clay is really satisfying for me at least because you know that it’s not only, like, serve plus-one, ace here, winner there, mistake there. There’s rallies almost every point. I find that interesting to watch.”

“I just love the way he’s been able to kind of run around and set up his forehand, whip it and start punishing the opponent shot after shot after shot after shot, back to you. That’s kind of the way I learned playing tennis, playing margins inside the line with topspin making sure the ball goes in.”

“But the majority of the season is played on hard court, a faster surface. It is a game style that is kind of vulnerable to hard-hitters, fast players.”

RUUD: “I need to flatten out my shots”

After his one-sided defeat by Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals in Turin, Ruud admitted he has to learn to play flatter balls, to counterpunch better and to be able to follow in Nadal’s footsteps, the Spaniard having became a great player on quick surfaces after his three first wins at Roland-Garros.

“He won two Wimbledons, what, four US Opens, two Australian Opens, Olympic gold on hard court. It’s not impossible. It’s just a surface that might be a bit more challenging and a bit more vulnerable to the aggressive players,” Ruud said.

“Like I’ve said, I’m always trying to improve. In my eyes, it’s too late to kind of change what kind of player I am at this point. I’m 25. The structure of my game is already there. I’m not going to start playing super flat or different style of tennis now.”

“I need to be able to flatten out the shots a bit more and also be able to kind of – I don’t know how to explain it – but from defence, especially on hard court, be able to take a bit more risk.”

“I think we can see it well with Jannik sometimes, even Alcaraz sometimes, these guys that play really well. You feel like you have them, they can turn around the point with one shot on the run, even from the forehand or backhand. I feel like that is something definitely missing in my game on the faster hard court. That’s something in the next weeks and months I’ll try to keep working on.

“But I’m not going to change my game in one day or one week. It’s going to take time. It’s definitely a goal for me to be able to flatten out the shots more, as I know the majority of the season is played on hard court. In terms of Rafa, he made it.”