Casper Ruud Airs Frustrations After Surprise Early US Open Exit

| by Jake Davies

Casper Ruud talked through his disappointment after being another top player to lose early at the US Open this year.

Ruud's year has not really lived up to the heights of some of the seasons that have gone before it. The Norwegian made his big breakthrough by showing his prowess on a slower clay court. In the 2021 season he went on to claim six tour-level titles, with five coming on the clay and just the single title on the quicker hard courts.

However, this season Ruud looks a lot more vulnerable to upsets and his play style weaknesses on the hard court have looked a lot more easy to expose. Those weaknesses being his vulnerability to a bigger and harder ball-striker and the lack of solutions he has once a player prevents him from dictating with his forehand with time on the ball.

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That was precisely what took place in his second round loss to an inspired Zhizhen Zhang. Ruud needs to do a lot of soul-searching to make him the calibre of player of a couple of seasons ago. In his press conference he shed light on the challenges of playing his opponent and also the hard court surface as well.

"Yeah, well it is a different surface, for sure. That kind of makes a difference, at least in my eyes mostly. He plays similar kind of styles on both surfaces. He probably feels more comfortable on a hard court compared to clay. Today there were many times where it felt like I'd hit a good serve and he would just smack a return inches of the baseline, makes it really tough for me."

Ruud would go on to take control of the fourth set, but later revealed his disappointment at just how things escalated in the fifth set just as it appeared he had found more of his game.

"It is a mix of both. He plays so fast that I kind of find it difficult to set up my shots. That is something I need to be better at, for sure. Flatten out the shots, kind of counterattack when people are playing this fast against me. That is frustrating, of course, because typically when someone goes that big, mistakes will kind of creep up. I feel like they didn't in the fifth set, when I thought there could be more mistakes."

With all four majors being concluded for Ruud, his sights will now be set on searching for a bit more form to end the season on a high, but also to try his best to squeeze into the ATP Finals event at the end of the year. Ruud is a defending finalist at that tournament, so is in some serious threat of leaving the World's Top-10 if a sequence of victories do not come.

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