OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 12, 2022

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

C. RUUD/F. Auger-Aliassime

6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Casper, great match today.

CASPER RUUD: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Seemed very comfortable today on court. How was it for you?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it was not as comfortable as maybe people would think. Yeah, like I said on court, everything sort of went my favor, in my way: close calls, long rallies. Yeah, so that obviously helps against a great player like Felix. So it was important.

I knew I had to bring my A game if I wanted to have a chance to beat him. I was able to bring my A game and something else, as well. It was a perfect day for me at the office.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Did you feel it was a perfect storm for you today because Felix was struggling to hit shots and you made some really spectacular shots on your own?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, I mean, I didn't get a great start, and Felix got the perfect or best start. I was able luckily to turn things around. I think we can all agree that I've seen or we've seen Felix play better than he did today. He was doing some mistakes here and there.

At the same time I was making him play a lot of extra balls here and there. I was running down, chasing a lot of balls, making them with good depth. I guess it was quite tough for him to sort of find winners and free points against me. That was sort of the goal, to make him play a lot of points, a lot of extra shots. It was working.

When I had the small chance myself, I was able to place especially my forehand exactly where I needed to, get some winners. I was serving great also. Like I said, everything was working well for me today.

But, yeah, I practiced with Felix a lot of times. Of course I've seen him play better. At the same time I was doing my strategy and the plan really well. I think we did a good job on making a strategy for this match.

Q. It's a good win over a great player. The fans were with the hometown favorite. What do you do to maintain focus when you know the crowd is going to be for the other guy?

CASPER RUUD: Well, I like to sometimes the night before a match to visualize myself being out on the court that I'm going to play on tomorrow or the day after. In this case last night I was visualizing myself a little bit being on center court, just the moment we step on court, when you know Felix is going to get a big cheer when he enters the court. If I end up losing some long rallies or big points, they're going to go pretty wild for him.

I like to do it because then I've sort of been through it already in my head at least. I guess that's a way I like to deal with things, special locations or special matches like today.

Yeah, luckily in a way I was able to play so well that the crowd didn't have maybe as much to cheer for as they maybe had hoped for. Sounds a bit cruel, but yeah, I guess that was the case today. I won 10 games in a row from 0-1 to 6-1, 4-0. That streak I went on there was perfect for me to sort of get the match going my way.

Yeah, from when I was broken the first time, after that I was leading the match all the way.

Q. What do you expect from your next match against Hubert? He won against Nick, who was on a great streak.

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it's going to be a tough one. Hubert is always dangerous, a good player on any surface. Especially on hard court. He has won Miami before. He knows what it takes to win a Masters 1000 event.

He's back in a semifinal, and he's looking sharp, looking strong. Today he played, yeah, I think a very good match against a tough opponent.

He's a player that I know quite well. He's a very nice guy. I hope we can have a good match and we can produce a good semifinal tomorrow.