ROLAND GARROS

October 2, 2020

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

D. THIEM/C. Ruud

6-4, 6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A question on the match today. First of all, how important do you think the first set was when you had those chances to break back in that 6-2 game? How important do you think the early part of the first set was for setting the tone for you?

CASPER RUUD: Well, I think it was, yeah, one of the keys of the match. I started well and broke him. I guess he didn't play his best or didn't find his rhythm quite yet in the beginning of the match.

But, you know, it's a long match when you're playing a five-setter on clay. So even though you're up 3-1 in the first doesn't mean that it will go your way. And I got that, not going to say lesson, but I got that reminder today. He broke me right back and then I had some chances, like you said, to break him back again.

But he played some clutch shots on the clutch points and he shows how good of a clay court player he is and fighter he is. It was a tough first set. It was a long first set. It was tough losing it. And when you lose the first set to such a good clay court player, it's tough to get back and maybe he gains even a little bit of confidence.

So it was, yeah, like I said, tough to come back from one set down. And even two sets to Love down against Thiem on clay is, I don't think anyone's came back from that before. So it wasn't meant to be for me today.

Q. Your clay court swing so far is done. I'm going to ask you if you're going to play Sardinia later, but maybe you can tell me that anyway, but how do you look at this clay court swing as a whole, you had such a great run in Rome, obviously still such a young player, got the opportunity to play Dominic in this third round, how do you see your clay court swing as a whole?

CASPER RUUD: Of course I'm very happy with it and I think, even in the beginning of the year down in South America I did some good tournaments and got my first title, which was a very good feeling for me.

And then here in Rome or here in Europe, Rome and Hamburg I did also, I did also play a lot of good tennis and made the semi-finals in both tournaments. I felt like I was on a good roll.

So I'm going to have to say that I was, I think I was a little bit unlucky with the draw or with the seeding this year. Of course it was very nice to be seeded here in Roland Garros for the first time, but then to go on and play Thiem in the third round is probably one of the toughest third rounds you can have in this tournament.

But it was another great experience for me to play here on the center court for the first time in my career and hopefully I will play more times on the Chatrier court and hopefully get some wins on it even.

But it's been a very good clay court swing for me this year and I think for now I'm going to keep it rolling and go to Sardinia after Paris or, yeah, when that starts in, I guess seven, eight, nine days or something.

Q. You had those two calls today, chair umpire had to take a look, I think you told the chair umpire, Ok, we're going to see after the match the marks. Have you had a chance to check it out? Have you seen like a replay or a Hawk-Eye or something on both those calls in the match today you felt went against you?

CASPER RUUD: Well I have seen one of them, which was the one that I was a little bit doubtful of, but which was the first one, and it was quite clearly out. I got a picture of it on my phone from guys watching back home on the TV, so I guess they showed it on the screen, it was quite with a good margin out.

And even the serve I felt I was a hundred percent sure that the serve was out. I'm not sure if they showed it on the screen, but I think it's a bit strange that they have the Hawk-Eye available here but they just, they only show it for the TV and I don't understand why we can't use it, to be honest.

So I guess there are some rules there that I don't know about, but I think definitely that clay should or that we should start using Hawk-Eye for the clay court tournaments as well because then we don't need to have all these arguments with umpires.

And I think, quite frankly, we players are right on these mark discussions. We saw yesterday with Shapovalov this huge point he had in the fifth set. And today for me it wasn't, it wasn't that crucial of a point but it was a deuce in the first game of the second and any point is important but I can't imagine how frustrating must have been for Shapovalov yesterday and I hope that in the future we will start to use this type of technology for the clay court tournaments as well.

Q. Norwegian sports stars are loved Austrian sports fans, so as we know Kristofferson is very famous in Austria. Hala became famous. And now probably you have a lot of fans in Austria now. What do you think about Austria and Dominic Thiem? (No microphone.)

CASPER RUUD: He's a good player that I look up to a lot and someone that I try to not imitate but learn, learn things from, especially here on the clay court, he's been in the finals here two years in a row and unfortunately for him loss to Rafa in the final, but he's probably going to play more finals here I would guess in his life.

And like I think Rafa said it yesterday he was, or not yesterday but last year, that he was pretty sure that Thiem will win at least one time here in Roland Garros. So I think it's looking very bright for him for his future here on the clay court.

And even he won his first Grand Slam on hard court so he has a huge career in front of him, so he's a player that I will have to hopefully play a lot of matches against in my future as well.

So, but yeah I think like you asked, Austria, I think it's a great country I've been there a lot in my childhood actually not for tennis for but for going skiing in the Alps, that's quite difference from tennis. But I think it's great people, they have a lot of good culture and I was there in Kitzbuhel for an event and they're also nice, they have all these local traditions that I think is really cool and quite similar to Norway in some ways.

And, yeah, like I said, nice people, nice food, you have the nice schnitzel in Austria that I really like to eat, so it's, I enjoy a lot Austria and I hope to be there for Vienna this year if we can play and problems Kitzbuhel also next year.