Casper Ruud admits he knew he was in for a daunting task when he was about to face Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam final but also shared that he was “pretty optimistic” he would be able to do something against the Spaniard because of the injury the 38-year-old battled at the time.
In mid-2022, the 25-year-old made his first Slam final at the French Open. There, he met his idol Nadal, who was dealing with some serious foot issues at the time as he was taking painkillers and injecting anesthesia into his foot for two weeks straight. Still, the Norwegian didn’t stand any chance as the Spanish tennis icon dismantled the current world No. 8 with a 6-3 6-3 6-0 scoreline to improve his all-time record at Roland Garros to 14 titles.
The following year, Ruud made back-to-back French Open finals and set up a Djokovic clash. The Serb – who had 22 Majors at the time – had at stake the all-time Grand Slam record. And he didn’t fail to deliver, beating the Norwegian 7-6 (1) 6-3 7-5 to get to 23 Majors at the time and leave Nadal behind.
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Ruud: Nadal was injured, I was pretty optimistic…
“The two finals I played, against Rafa in 2022 and against Novak in 2023, I thought: ‘Could it be harder – can you find more motivated players in the history of the game?’ You understand that they’re probably going to stay on court until the death. They don’t want to lose, especially when Novak is trying to win his 23rd Grand Slam. You know he’s just going to lock it down and you can be 5-1, 40-0 in the first set and he’s probably going to win it one way or another,” Ruud said on the Nothing Major podcast.
“Against Nadal, with his foot injury, I was pretty optimistic. I came in with confidence, I wasn’t too nervous, certainly a little bit, but I didn’t feel like I had any pressure. But the match started and I got broken in the first game, that’s it.”
Ruud was also a finalist at the 2022 US Open, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.