By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday August 12, 2021
Clay court. Hard court. It doesn’t seem to matter for Norway’s Casper Ruud. The 22-year-old has been at the top of his game all season, and after reeling off three consecutive titles on the clay this summer in Europe, he has shown up in Canada and made the transition to hard courts look seamless.
He has now won 13 consecutive matches - a career best for the rising star.
After his 6-4, 6-3 victory over Dusan Lajovic on Thursday, Ruud celebrated his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal on the surface by leaving a message on the camera as he signed off: “Hard court.”
After the match, which improves his record on the season to an impressive 37-9, Ruud explained the message to reporters.
“I have seen a lot of people, you know, probably questioning my ability to play on hard court, so just thought it was funny to write a little note. It was not to someone specific,” he said, adding: “I think it's fun to play on hard courts, you know. Even though I played most of my best results on clay, my best slam result is from this year Australian Open, so, I mean, I think it's a surface that also can suit my game well even though this year has been mainly clay, clay, clay all the year.
“So I think I'm motivated to come back to the hard courts. I have had two very good matches here. It's a great start for me to the hard-court swing, and we will play on the hard courts now for seven, eight months now so it's a very good start for me.”
Nadal Academy Plays a Role in Ruud’s Success
Asked how he has managed to put up such incredible numbers in 2021, Ruud said that he’s just being more solid, and he gave credit to the Nadal Academy for that.
“I think just the whole year I have been able to produce, you know, steady tennis,” he said. “I'm not, you know, the guy with the biggest game or the flashy shots. But, you know, just being steady, playing every points like it really matters I think has been working out well. That's something that, you know, they are very strict on now at the Nadal Academy. That's kind of his mentality, to play every point like your life depends on it.”
Tsitsipas Next - a Big Challenge
Ruud will need to stay solid if he has plans of advancing further in Toronto. He’ll face Stefanos Tsitsipas in quarterfinal action on Friday.
Ruud defeated Tsitsipas in Madrid this spring, but he knows it’ll be a different challenge on a fast hard court in Canada.
“He's a great player on all surfaces, really,” he said. “He's won big titles on both clay and hard courts, and, you know, he won the Nitto ATP Finals in 2019, which shows he can definitely play well on this surface. I think he's played finals here also before. He's definitely a tough player on this surface.
But I think the plan will be similar to what I tried to do in Madrid. That's at least plan A. If that doesn't work, we will see maybe if I go to plan B or plan C. I don't know if I have more than three plans. Hopefully one of them will work.”