THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 6, 2023

Casper Ruud

Press Conference

L. BROADY/C. Ruud

6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Casper Ruud.

Casper, your thoughts on today's match?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, well, I think first of all, Liam played really well. He deserved the victory, for sure.

I was pretty happy, especially honestly the first four sets. I started good, then kind of messed up a little and lost the first, but bounced back and won the second and third.

Fourth just got away unluckily in the beginning. He broke me. I couldn't break back. In the fifth, he was just dominant.

Yeah, all in all, I think was a quite good Wimbledon for me. The best one of my career so far, reaching the second round. Losing in a tough five-setter. That's how it goes sometimes.

Getting more experience here at Wimbledon is fun. Playing on Centre Court was amazing.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You got treatment towards the end of the fourth set on your right foot. How much of a factor was that in the final set?

CASPER RUUD: No, no, it was nothing. I taped my toes. The tape had slipped off due to sweating. I had to do a retape. Was not an issue at all.

Q. People will look at this as a big upset. We see this sort of thing happen not to you but big players at every slam. How do you think players are able to overperform to the extent Liam did today?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, if you look at what kind of player he is, what kind of player I am, there's no doubt that I think he's a much better grass court player than myself. He has more experience. His shots are much more effective than mine on grass. He moves probably better. You could see I was slipping a little here and there, losing my balance. He has a tricky lefty serve, which is tough on the grass where it skids off.

To me of course ranking-wise it's an upset, but going out of the match I consider him a better grass court player than myself due to the fact of the things I said earlier.

It's nice, I think it's really nice, to see at slams when people either from quallies or wild cards get the opportunity to play on the big stage and they do well.

Liam playing here at home, I'm sure this was a good victory for him. I hope that he can continue and have a good run here at Wimbledon. I think if he plays the way he played today, I think he has good chances of reaching top hundred within the year. I think that should be a realistic goal for him.

Q. There's obviously been a lot of talk about the fact that you didn't play any events on grass before this. Do you think that's a schedule you might maintain in your career or...

CASPER RUUD: Good question.

I think for now I'm happy with how we scheduled my year. It's just to me, I prioritize the weeks on clay. This year I did really well in the end of the clay season, but I didn't really do so well in the beginning maybe.

I'm still on the road traveling. It's a physical and mental kind of challenge every day that you're away from home. I had been 10, 11 weeks in a row kind of traveling around, playing tournaments. At some point you need some time at home.

If I choose to play, let's say, two events before Wimbledon, it's going to be directly from Roland Garros to somewhere else, stay in another hotel room, being away from home. Then, because I play both Bastad and Hamburg and these tournaments after Wimbledon, there would never be a break.

For me to split the season midway after Roland Garros, take a little break, is the most sensible in my kind of career and how I play, what tournaments I prefer to play.

I think I'll continue to do it.

Q. Can you explain why you think it is your game doesn't match up well on the surface?

CASPER RUUD: I mean, for starters, I didn't play on grass until I was, like, 16 years old. That was the first time in my life I stepped on the grass court. I have no experience since I was young. We don't have any grass courts in Norway, unfortunately.

From when I was little, I looked up to Rafa. I wanted to play kind of heavy clay court tennis. Rafa has won here twice. It shows how great of a fighter, how impressive that is. Doesn't mean you can't play well here, but it's just the shots with topspin aren't as effective here as on clay.

You have players like Liam, who likes to play flat and punishes me with every single shot that I try to play with some topspin. I feel like I have to get low and dig up his flat, really low shots. He can be there and wait for my topspin balls and penetrate through kind of.

I think that's the biggest challenge for me. With the racquet setup that I have, the mentality that I have of my game, it's very difficult to kind of change and just say, This week I'm going to play really flat and do completely different than what I've done for 20 years of my life.

It's just difficult. But I'm going to keep trying. I have a goal, of course, in my career to try to do well here at some point. It didn't happen this year. I'll come back. I honestly love coming here. It's such a special place. Every year they do really, really many, a lot of really good improvements. They take really good care of the players.

Q. There was a time in your career when you had the same sort of challenges on hard courts, but overcame those. Do you think it would be harder for you to do that on grass with the season being shorter or more of a mindset?

CASPER RUUD: Maybe. To me, I think I said it on the last press conference as well, the toughest thing is that I use a lot of my, especially with my forehand, legs a lot, I use a lot of force from my legs.

Let's say I'm running out to my forehand, I push off with my right leg mostly. Then when I land, I'm kind of, depending on that first step, being quite quick, recovering back to the middle.

Every time I try to do that on grass, I have a feeling when I land and kind of want to go back, I'm going to slip and fall, have a nasty fall.

I don't dare to play the same shots that I do on hard court and clay in a way. That's why I get a little tentative. Sometimes I'm not hitting the shots like I want to. It's just because I'm really scared and I have to take all these extra steps.

Yeah, I think that's the biggest challenge that I will always kind of feel on the surface. Just being really careful with your movements. That makes me not being able to kind of play with a force that I like to in a way, if that makes sense. It's not an excuse, it's just how I feel.

You see other players doing it, as well. I just have to try to improve. Let's see, maybe next year I will have some more days on the grass before and during Wimbledon than this year.

It's going to be close to 11 months now for me not playing on grass. The season is so long, there's so many tournaments, for me now I kind of forget about grass. I will watch the final obviously. I think it's always fun to watch the final here. But my mind is already kind of focused on what's to come.

Yeah, but I look forward to come back here next year.

Q. Are you going to make it to the weekend concert?

CASPER RUUD: It's tomorrow. Maybe. I think I have doubles tomorrow, so actually I have a good excuse to stay. I think I might try to catch the show, yes (smiling).