UNITED CUP

January 1, 2023

Christian Ruud

Casper Ruud

Team Norway

Press Conference

STEFANI-MATOS/Eikeri-Durasovic

6-4, 7-5

Team Brazil - 4

Team Norway - 1

THE MODERATOR: Good match today. A lot of positives I think from the match from your team. How do you assess the whole tie and Team Norway's performance?

CAPTAIN CHRISTIAN RUUD: Well, I think that we can take some positives out of the tie against Brazil. First of all, Casper had a good match and we got the win this morning. Our girls did a good job. Malene played a pretty good match against the No. 1 Brazil, Haddad. Ulrikke was also kind of close today also with the No. 2 Brazilian, so they kind of feel like the difference is not that big even though the rankings are far apart.

But, yeah, I think we have to take positives. The mixed doubles was quite close also. Even though we lost 4-1, I think we are not too scared to be here and maybe play more United Cups in the future.

THE MODERATOR: Casper, you got the win today. You played a great match. Second set maybe you started a little bit slower. Then you found your groove in the second set. How did you find the match today?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it was a little bit up and down, a lot of breaks, actually, but most of the breaks went luckily my way and I was able to turn the second set around, like you said. Good start to the year. Feels great to get a win obviously as the first match of the year. That's always a great feeling.

To play for Norway, I have had experience from ATP Cup, and it was nice to do it today as well in the United Cup. Looking forward for another match in a couple of days.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Casper, you just mentioned you obviously played ATP Cup before but now United Cup. How much do you just enjoy the whole team atmosphere and just the whole experience of it?

CASPER RUUD: It's fun. I mean, Davis Cup, ATP Cup, Laver Cup, they are all something special and now it's the United Cup. Seems like it's been sort of idea in the tennis world to come up with new ideas. You know, Laver Cup is fairly a new event that I have been able to play a couple times. United Cup is the first time. It's fun to try new things.

Davis Cup is probably the older and the most historical one, but Norway, we have never been able to reach the maybe highest step in Davis Cup to play in the World Group, so for us to be here, it's a great experience for me to have teammates and also hopefully for the teammates to be here and see the best players in the world up close.

I think for the women, you know, they have players like Iga here that they can look up to. Belinda is here, as well. The girls from Norway, they don't typically see these type of players at all during the year, so to see them up close, I think it's a good experience and hopefully it's some motivation and inspiration to see them.

Q. Obviously your next singles match is quite a good quality one for the first week of the year, not that this one wasn't today, but obviously playing such a big player, how excited do you get to start the season off with a match like that?

CASPER RUUD: It's fun. It's one of the few events where you can have two top-20 players or almost even top-10 players play against each other in the first matches of the tournament. It's almost like the ATP Finals in a way.

I think Matteo, it's been a bit unfortunate with some injuries and some things ranking-wise not going his way last year, but to me he's definitely top-10 material, and I look at him as a top-10 player because I know he has that potential and that level in him.

If I want to have a chance, I'll need to bring on my A game. That was the whole idea in the Nitto Finals, that you know you have to play your best otherwise you'll pretty much have no chance. Will be the same thing in a couple days against Matteo. He's eager to start. He's had I know quite a lot of weeks off, and he's eager to start his season. I will try my best to prevent him from winning two matches. Of course I would like to do that instead, but I'm sure it's going to be a good match.

Q. Christian, your overall thoughts heading into the tie against Italy and how are you preparing for that?

CAPTAIN CHRISTIAN RUUD: Yeah, we know who we play. We have watched a little bit of the Italian players in their matches, so, I don't know, our No. 1 woman's player, she's young, she's hungry, she wants to learn. She played a quite good match today in her first match against Brazil. I think she has chances in her match.

And for Viktor, it will be of course difficult. Musetti is a more experienced player and with a good ranking, but also he has a chance to show himself that he can play with the top guys. He practice with Casper a lot, so he knows in practice he can beat Casper sometimes, so hopefully he can take that confidence into a match against Musetti and maybe do something.

Ulrikke, she's more experienced, but she's struggled with injuries. She has a good level when she plays well, so I feel like we have chances in all the matches really, even though we are underdogs, but we will try to enjoy it and see what we can do.