Home » Casper Ruud believes the 2023 season’s ‘frustrating’ start is only temporary.
Casper Ruud believes the 2023 season’s ‘frustrating’ start is only temporary.
Casper Ruud acknowledged that his season has gotten off to a tough start but said that ups and downs are just a part of the process. Ruud was looking to defend his world No. 1 ranking and win a Grand Slam at the Australian Open following a successful 2022 season.
It hasn’t exactly been an easy season for Ruud thus far, four and a half months into the campaign. Ruud has a record of 11-7 so far in 2023 despite leaving tournaments early throughout the first three months of the year. Ruud finally gained some momentum when he won four matches in Estoril to capture the title in the first week of April.
But soon after his victory in Estoril, Ruud lost to Jan-Lennard Struff in the round of 16 at Monte Carlo, which was disappointing.
Ruud discusses his difficult season.
“It’s annoying, but at the same time, I sort of realize—I’m not going to claim that I foresaw it would happen—that your entire career is not going to be a fun ride.
There will undoubtedly be some downs, although hopefully there will be more ups than downs. And I’ve never really gone through a really, very major slump in my tennis life or career. I’m not going to claim that the past few months have been like that, but they haven’t been what I’ve been trying to accomplish. Hopefully, I can try to move past that.
We are playing on a new surface, so you could compare it to a fresh start, Ruud stated on the ATP Radio Tennis Radio Podcast, via Tennis-Infinity. Ruud had a successful opening day at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.
Ruud advanced to the round of 16 after defeating Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-6 (1), where he will face either Francisco Cerundolo or Francesco Passaro. On Barcelona’s clay courts, Ruud may be able to go pretty far this week, but that remains to be seen.
