Not too long ago many of us thought this cool, amiable solid Norwegian guy was mostly an excellent clay court player, a model of hard working, who deserved his good ranking, around tenth position. The way he outclassed Matteo Berrettini at the US Open, has definitely proved how wrong we were. Matteo did not come up with his best performance, but Ruud played an impressive match all way long.
“The first two sets went much better than I was expecting. Everything sort of went my favour. I was hitting all the spots, all the shots that I needed to. Matteo was maybe not showing the level he typically does,” said Ruud.
“But I think the conditions were a little bit in my favour with the humidity and the roof closed. It made the ball or the court feel a little slower. I felt like I had more time than usual when I play against him. It was a little bit of advantage for me.”
Ruud dominated the first set, prevailing in all domains. Even his service fared better than Berrettini’s.
“I was really bad. I didn’t check my percentage of serve. I didn’t check, like, the stats, but my game wasn’t there,’ Berrettini admitted. “It was he worst day of the tournament probably in the most important moment. I fought through, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t feeling my game. I wasn’t feeling my mindset. I think he was feeling really good. Congrats to him. I told him. He also said he played unbelievable match.”
Like in his previous match against Davidovich Fokina, Berrettini was looking stiff: his mighty serve and forehand refusing to flow. Ruud was always in the control of the rallies, where he often caged Berrettini in the backhand corner. With his deep, spinning groundstrokes he was constantly forcing the Italian to hit from far behind the baseline, draining his energy, then not fearing to switch to the forehand, no longer hurtful. Ruud took the set 61, in 28 minutes.
The second set was like a scan of the first and Ruud had two set points to finish it off with the same score. Suddenly, Berrettini shook off the rust, loosened up and started hitting through his shots, finding length and spin with his back hand and his power on the forehand. It wasn’t enough to save the set, which he only partially recovered, losing 64, but the wind was changing.
Indeed, Berrettini broke immediately in the third set. Now Ruud was starting to miss shots. He appeared gripped by anxiety and was playing more cautiously and predictably.
The Italian rose to 3-0 and actually had won six of the last seven games. Now he was holding on in the longer rallies, and, in spite of being forced to hit from far behind the baseline, he was now able to turn them around with his forehand. His serve in turn was ripping Ruud’s racquet from his hands. Leading 5-2 he had two set points on Ruud’s service but missed a forehand and a return. Serving for the set, the score read 30-30 when he chose to come into the net twice after a kick second serve. On both occasions Ruud’s returning and passing skills proved their worth and the number seven in the world bounced back into set.
Ruud no longer let the match slip from his hands, whereas Berrettini didn’t succeed in sustaining his momentum. The tiebreak resembled the first thirteen games of the match, and Ruud imposed his dominance once more in the tiebreak.
“In the third set I was also a little bit fortunate to save some set points and come back and win it on the tiebreak, but very happy to win in three straight sets,” he said
This is Ruud’s second long run in a Slam this year. He also had to pull out of Australian Open the day before the tournament because of ankle injury.
“Not playing a match in Melbourne was a little bit obviously disappointing, but I knew that when Paris came along I was starting to feel better on the clay, especially, and finding my form and was trying to think, you know, there are three Grand Slams left of the year, and let’s try to take the chances I may get.” He reflected.
What’s his secret for success?
“During Paris, something clicked, and I feel like I, this year, have sort of figured out in the better way how to play five sets and knowing that it’s very different from playing best-of-three sets, and it often becomes much longer matches and a lot of back and forth.” He said.
“Also sometimes realizing or knowing that you can sort of let one set go every once in a while to save some energy for the rest of the sets. So I think, yeah, I matured and learned how to play five sets better than I did last year.”
Confidence in his much improved game on hard courts is a key factor too.
“I’m honestly a bit surprised that I made it to the semis here, but I think I have developed my hard court game a lot the last year or two, and I think Miami this year showed me and I proved to myself that I can, you know, beat good players and reach later stages in big hard court tournaments. That has been a sort of confidence booster for myself.”
Anyway, who says that clay court players can’t target the US Open?
“If you look at this tournament, US Open, and a couple of players who have been known as clay court players, let’s say Rafa and Thiem, they have both won here, and Rafa has won it four times. When you look at the Champions Wall in the locker room here, you see there are many different players who have won this tournament. This is a Grand Slam the last 18 or 19 years that had more winners than the rest of them, because I’m not sure why, but there is something special I guess with this place. This year I’m pretty sure there will be new first-time winner here this year also.”
