MURRAY RIVER OPEN

February 3, 2021

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

J. VESELY/C. Ruud

5-7, 7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It was a close match and a long match today. Can you give us your thoughts on how you think it went?

CASPER RUUD: It was, I think, overall a good match. I started off good. I had many chances in his service game throughout the whole first set, and probably -- in the end I was able to break him.

Second set I also started off good. I broke him right away and I was up a break and serving at 3-1. It was a bit -- I did some unfortunate or sloppy mistakes at 3-1. I was up 40-Love in my own serve and then he did a couple of good shots and I did some sloppy serves and did a double fault and missed another couple shots. So that was -- I think that was the biggest mistake of the match from my side to let him in, back in the match again, and with a big server like him, you never know when you're going to have chances in his service game.

I still had some more chances throughout the second set I thought, and at the end of the second set I had too much points in his serve and was very close. I could almost smell the victory. In the end he was just serving too good and played a better third set than me. But overall I'm still happy with the level I played and I felt like I was returning well, which I've been trying to improve this off season. The ground strokes felt good when I was able to -- when we were able to have some ground stroke rallies. I'm not feeling too down about it, and yeah, I'm still happy with the level of my own play even though I lost today.