AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2023

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

J. BROOKSBY/C. Ruud

6-3, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Tough luck, Casper. You seemed to have of bit of momentum after saving the match points in the third but tell us what happened in the beginning of the fourth.

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it was a tough match out there. In the third, like you said, I was able to come back from set points down and saved some set points in quite a way. I felt like I was working my way into the match.

But, you know, I had a poor start in the fourth, and then Jenson, you know, clipped some great returns, you know, clean return winners on my serves. Got a couple of breaks. I couldn't recover from that, unfortunately.

I gave it my all, but in the fourth set especially wasn't enough. The first two sets were sort of closer, but I ended up getting broken a bit too many times. So that's something that was maybe the key to part of the reason why I lost today. I didn't serve precisely enough, and against Jenson, with a great returner that he is of the ball, he's gonna make it tough for you if you don't serve well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How difficult a player is he to play? He's obviously pretty unconventional.

CASPER RUUD: Yes. I think it's fun to watch him, because it looks very different for many players. I always sort of enjoy watching him when he plays. I don't watch all his matches obviously, but if he's on and I have a chance to watch, I think it's interesting, because he makes tennis looks a little different from any other players.

But he plays really well. He plays flat, he defends great from both sides. You know, it's a tough matchup for me, because I never really get any higher balls or balls where I feel like I can generate my heavy topspin shots that I like to play. The few times that I was able to he counterattacked great from both sides, I must say, keeping the ball low and deep.

It's a tough matchup for me, and I know it's going to be for many years probably. I will try to learn from it. You know, I think that he played great today. I mean, didn't make many errors at all.

I didn't feel like I played particularly bad or not the level that I wanted to play, but he just ended up winning many of the longer rallies and had sort of an answer to all the questions that I asked him sort of (smiling).

Q. Can I ask what you said to him at the net? How does this fortnight pair up to your expectations for yourself?

CASPER RUUD: I said, Well played, and that he was annoyingly good today (smiling).

Like I said earlier, there were many sort of interesting rallies where we were rallying back and forth, playing a little -- not cat and mouse, but he had attack, maybe I came back and was controlling the point, and then somehow he guessed right or came back in the rally again. It was the momentum shifted all along.

So it's frustrating when you feel like you have the momentum in a rally, and then a player pulls out a shot like he did in the last game, for example, where he does that slice down the line, on the line, which is the only shot he can play and he's able to do it.

It's frustrating and annoying at the same time, but at the same time I gave him credits, because he stayed in there and fought well. Physically it was a tough match. It was close to four hours and four sets. He fought through well and didn't seem to be affected by the duration of the match.

Yeah, I just said, Good luck for the rest of the tournament, as well.

Q. Tough luck today. Just wanted to ask about the medical timeout, what the issue was, how much it was hampering you, whether it was something that had been bothering you before the match when you first felt it.

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it's a little tension and some slight pain in my abdominal. It's something that has actually been with me for around two years, the last two years since I got a strain here two years ago in the fourth round. It's still sometimes a little bit of an issue that I hope this period that I will have now in front of me of four, five weeks of not too much serving and rebuilding my body a little bit will help with the problem, because it's not the first time that this happens.

Just releasing it with the physios can help a little bit. It just sort of tightens up my left side from serving.

It didn't affect me a lot, but I felt it a little bit in the second set. In the third and fourth I was able to serve a little more freely, and feel better in the ab.

I hope it's nothing serious, but it does come a little bit back here and there sometimes, so I need to take care of it and hope that I can sort of get rid of it for a long time hopefully now.

Q. I think you said that you're going to sort of use February and the next few weeks kind of as your offseason?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah.

Q. Just wondering kind of in hindsight now, obviously you played all those exhibitions with Rafa in South America, do you think maybe that wasn't the best preparation for the Australian Open and something you might reconsider in the future, how you spend that offseason?

CASPER RUUD: I'm not sure. I mean, it's very easy to sit here now and say that was bad for maybe both Rafa and I due to the fact that we lost early here.

At the same time, I see no reason why we couldn't have a good Australian Open or made better results down here. I think it's coincidental sometimes. You know, I think I have realized that there are, in my eyes, so many players these days that you will have chance to beat many players on tour, and there's a chance you will lose to many players on tour.

The margins are small these days, and I just realized that, you know, even though I don't feel like a worse player or that I'm in physically worse shape than I was during the US Open, for example. There I made the final; here I lost second round. That's how it is sometimes.

In US Open things sort of leaned my way. I won a tough five-setter in the third round against Tommy Paul. In the third set I saved three or four set points, and I was able to sort of win that match and the margins were on my side.

Today I felt like maybe the margins were a little bit sort of against me at sometimes. Set point in the second set, he hits a let cord. I think he also painted a lot of lines today on the baseline, so there is small margins that they can maybe fly out the next time.

I don't know. It's a good question, and I don't really have a good answer. But I look forward to having some time off, spending it at home, getting ready for hopefully another good and long year on tour when I start again.

Q. Following up on that, I don't know exactly what the schedule of that South American tour was. Were you able to have an offseason, a preseason training block?

CASPER RUUD: Kind of yes and no. I think we left the day after Nitto Finals, and then I got back to Norway I believe December 3rd maybe. Then December 5th I believe I left for some holidays for around seven, eight days.

I went to the Maldives, and so on the way back I stopped in Abu Dhabi because it's not that far away. I practiced three, four days there and played the Mubadala tournament. That week in Abu Dhabi was kind of like, it's not the right thing to say preseason, but there were great players there. I practiced with Norrie, Tsitsipas, Alcaraz. I played two matches. It was sort of a mini week of preparation.

Then I spent Christmas home, continuing to train, and then I sort of was hoping to use United Cup period and Auckland to sort of train well and play a couple of matches before coming into this.

So back to maybe your question, it was maybe not enough to be able to perform well here this year. So it will be considered by me and my team what we will do in December this year, and if this was the right way to prepare for Australian Open or not, who knows.

Maybe it looks like it was not right way, but there are many factors that come into play. I mean, let's see, but yeah, I have done what I felt was the right preparation but wasn't able to perform and win as many matches as I hoped here this year.