"Always favourite in every tournament" - Ruud on Djokovic ahead of ATP Finals
ATP
ATP Tour season comes to an end with the final event in which Casper Ruud and Novak Djokovic won't meet in one group.
While the Serbian will be fighting with Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas in red group, Casper Ruud will be in green group with Rafael Nadal, Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime. The top two players from each group will advance to semifinals of the 2022 ATP Finals and that's where Casper Ruud and Novak Djokovic can meet. Speaking about the 21-time Grand Slam champion ahead of the event, the Norwegian said:
“I think tennis-wise he's played great. He's just been very unfortunate with the situation and how things have played out due to points, not being able to enter many countries, which has hurt him a lot on the rankings,” Ruud said about Djokovic during Ruud Talk.
“But to me he will always be one of the best, if not the best player out there and always the favourite in pretty much every tournament he shows up to. I think he has shown that this year; he won Wimbledon, he won these two tournaments a couple of weeks ago, and in Rome. Tennis wise, I think he has done great only playing, I don't know, eight, nine tournaments. He's close to top five in the world."
“Let's see how next year plays out. I hope that he can be able to enter these countries again and that he can play a full year. In my eyes, he's pretty much always a favourite to win, except for maybe Roland Garros where the King Rafa is always going to be the favourite there,“ Ruud said.
“But on hard courts, grass, he's always up there being one of the favourites to win the tournaments and he said he wants to show the young guys that he's still there, he's still present.”
