ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 17, 2021

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/C. Ruud

6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You made the semis in Rome and here. What kind of confidence does this give you moving forward?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, no, it's a nice confidence booster. Coming into this week, I played pretty well in Marbella, but I lost to a good young player. I got a tough beating there. He was playing very well. Surprised me a bit how well Alcaraz was playing back in Marbella. He showed me that the young guys are coming. I felt like it was time for me to step up a little bit.

I played well here in Monte-Carlo, which gave me confidence. Unfortunately wasn't to be today. It's been a good week. I've been playing good matches and beating good players. It's a very good start of the clay court season for me.

Q. What is your takeaway from Monte-Carlo?

CASPER RUUD: I think I had some good wins here. The three previous rounds against Schwartzman, Carreno Busta and Fognini, I played well. I was able to beat very good players, especially on a clay court, which I think is their best surface.

I consider myself a clay court player myself. I'm taking with me a lot of confidence for the next tournaments. I'm really looking forward to the next Masters 1000s events in Madrid and Rome, where I will try to do my best to try to defend myself from last year. I have good memories from Rome. And I'm looking forward to playing Madrid. It will be my first time playing the main drawn event there.

Yeah, it's some nice weeks coming. It's been a very good start of the European clay court season for me. I'm ready for the next tournaments.