2023 is being a strange year for Casper Ruudfirstly because of its level -below what was expected- and secondly because of its planning, since it decided to use the month of February as a kind of preseason after not having stopped at the end of last year to embark with Rafael Nadal on a tour of South America. This was perhaps not the best decision that the Norwegian could have made since for the moment his results have been disappointing both in the Australian Open and in the subsequent tournaments he has played, where his early eliminations in Acapulco, against Taro Daniel, stand out above all. and in Indian Wellsbefore Garin.
Now Ruud has reached the Miami Open with the pressure of defending the 600 points achieved last year. The 24-year-old tennis player begins in this event the defense of everything achieved last season and has started with a note by beating an always complicated Illya Ivashka in a very clear way. This triumph invites us to be optimistic with the player born in Oslo since he has a fairly affordable draw until the quarterfinals, where he could run into Andrey Rublev or Jannik Sinner and risk a place in the semis where Carlos Alcaraz is probably waiting, who It was precisely the one who beat him last season in the final.
In any case, Ruud is aware that a good game cannot change everything, but that it can at least be the first stone, since for now there are a large number of fans who believe that the Norwegian’s fall in the ranking is a matter of of time. However, Ruud pays no attention to the criticism and after his second round match at the Miami Open spoke with the ATP on court to explain how he sees himself in this event: “I want to believe that one match will change things, but there are still many games to play and there are many good players in the tournament. It’s been almost two weeks since I played a game after suffering an early loss in Indian Wells. I worked hard and came to Miami with great memories from last year.”
WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT THE POINTS
Some memories that the Norwegian clings to to return to the path of victory, although without thinking about the points, since he is aware that this only adds pressure. “Last year I won’t say I changed my year here because I won Buenos Aires, but then I had an injury that kept me out for two or three weeks and I lost early in Indian Wells. When people asked me about my expectations, I said I just wanted to perform well in the final stretch of this part of the season and I ended up reaching the final. So I’m just going to try to win some games again, not think about what points I have to defend and just try to get some momentum.” Ruud commented.
In this way, Ruud hopes that his season will return to that turning point in Miami that will give him the strength to achieve great results in the rest of the year. In addition, he is aware that the gravel tour is now coming, his favorite part of the year, and that there are several tournaments where he barely defends points -Monte Carlo and Madrid-, so he knows that if he loses a good handful of points now he will to have the opportunity to recover them soon, so let’s remember that the Norwegian already said at the beginning of the season that his main objective was not to defend what he achieved in 2022 but to add even more.
