Casper Ruud - 'It's fun as a family to put Norway on the map' - Players’ Voice

In a new edition of Players’ Voice world No.8 Casper Ruud reflects on his momentous 2021, the tough lessons learned at the Slams and what it means to represent his country…

Thinking back to last year when I started my season in Australia, I had no idea I’d be able to win five tournaments. Whoever wins is the player who has been the best all week, so it’s something you always aim for, but it’s not easy to do! It’s actually one of the toughest things because you usually start with either 64 or 32 players, but there will only be one champion. It just happened that five times last year, I happened to be that champion. It’s obviously a great, fun feeling and although it’s a little surreal, it’s given me the confidence to know that every time I start a new season, I am capable of winning multiple tournaments and that’s good motivation to have.

If I had the option to trade those five titles for one Grand Slam title, I I think that’s an easy ‘yes’ from me. Grand Slams are obviously the biggest things we have in this sport - they’re what everyone dreams about. I remember the first time I played a main draw after making it through qualifiers (the 2018 Australian Open) and it was a very special feeling.

In 2021, I wasn’t able to perform as well as I’d hoped at the Slams. I think I had a good start; reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time in my career, but in general, they were a little bit of a disappointment for me. At Roland-Garros, I played Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round and the match ended in his favour, 7-5 in the fifth set. That was a very tough loss for me because I’d had a great clay court season, so the French Open was a big goal for me. It was a crazy, rollercoaster match and I knew I had my chances but missed them.

I had a similar match in Wimbledon where I lost to Jordan Thompson in another tight five-setter. Of course you don’t want to lose those matches, but at the same time, it gives you motivation for future years because when you have the chance to play them again, you’ll remember the bitter loss you had the year before and think, ‘please don’t let it happen again this year!’

I think it’s good to have some tough moments and losses throughout the season because it means maybe you will perform a little better next time around. I hope to be in a position where I can win these big tournaments, but it feels far off getting there… Of course I will do whatever I can and I’m prepared to do the work. I think Roland-Garros will always be one of the biggest tournaments for me every season. 2024 will obviously be a special year because with the Olympics, you’ll have two chances to win there. I will be 25 years old then, so I hope to be playing at the highest level of my career by that point.

That means becoming a better player year by year and I am very grateful to have the support from my family to help me. My father is my coach and my whole family is very involved with my tennis. This sport as we all know is not easy, so everything that can happen off the court, they try to take on so I can focus on my tennis. My father has helped me since I was very young and we have a very good relationship as father and son, as well as coach and player. I think he’s a big part of the reason I’ve reached as far as I have and it was important for me to have someone with experience of the Tour from being a professional tennis player. When I was building the player I wanted to be with my strength and fitness, he made me realise that every practice matters. You have to play for a lot of hours and hit a lot of tennis balls to become a good player and I think that made me mature quite early on.

It’s fun for us as a family to put Norway on the map in the tennis world. I carry the Norwegian flag with pride and I always play for my country - even though I play matches on the ATP Tour, I have Norway next to my name and I always love playing in the ATP Cup and Davis Cup.

I want to make tennis a sport that becomes a little more popular in Norway. I am not saying we should burn the skis, but maybe some young, athletic kids can choose a racket and bring their talent to the tennis court. Maybe they can do tennis in the summer and skiing in the winter because it would be really fun to see more kids playing. I know that in the past few years, tennis has definitely been growing and more and more TV channels are showing my matches. That's always nice knowing that people back home are following me and I hope I can make them proud!

Follow Casper Ruud on Instagram (@casperruud) and Twitter (@CasperRuud98).

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