Casper Ruud believes out of those who are competing at this year’s ATP Funals in Turin, he is the player who entered with the least confidence.
The Norweigan has struggled in recent weeks after losing six out of his last seven matches played on the Tour coming into the season-ending event. Ruud hasn’t won back-to-back matches since the US Open where he reached the fourth round before losing to Taylor Fritz. It is a stark contrast to the first half of this season where he reached five ATP finals, capturing titles in Barcelona and Geneva.
Ruud clinched a much-needed confidence boost on Monday when he produced a surprised straight-sets win over Carlos Alcaraz, who has been battling illness in recent days. It is only the second time in his career he has defeated a top three player and the first time he has done so on a hardcourt.
“I’m not full of confidence. I think that’s been showing in the last few weeks. A match like today (Monday) might be able to change it,” Ruud said afterward.
“We’re at the end of the season, so there aren’t going to be that many more tournaments coming up.
“If I can finish on a strong note here, I’m going to be really happy. You need to bring your A game. That’s kind of been the goal. If you don’t bring your A game against these players, might as well pack your bag and call it the season.”
One particular area of his game Ruud was impressed with was his serve. Against Alcaraz, he won 68% of his service points and hit five aces. He also saved five out of six points against the Spaniard.
“I was serving and returning quite well, which is really important on this surface,” he said.
“The serve has been something that I’ve been struggling a bit with the last weeks. I’m happy it worked better. My return, I was able to make some really good returns when I really needed to during close returning games and break points, so I was happy with that.”
Ruud is bidding to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Finals for the third time in as many appearances. The last player to reach the last four of the event in their first three appearances was Stan Wawrinka between 2013-2015. He will play Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev later this week.
