Casper Ruud Receives Late UTS Call-Up to Replace Injured Opelka

Thursday, 07 September 2023 at 22:30

byAlex Waite

Casper Ruud has been drafted into the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) Frankfurt edition in place of Riley "The Bot" Opelka, who had to withdraw due to injury.

Yibing Wu, also known as "The Great Wall", won the Los Angeles leg of the UTS in July when he bested "Hotshot" Taylor Fritz in the final. Now, the UTS is moving on to its European leg in Frankfurt, which begins on September 15, but Opelka will not be competing after the big-serving American had to withdraw due to injury.

But, Ruud has snapped up the opportunity to compete in the UTS European stage and he will enter the draw under the nickname, "The Iceman". The Norwegian star will make his UTS debut in Frankfurt and he joins the likes of Gael “La Monf” Monfils, Andrey “Rublo” Rublev and Daniil “The Chessmaster” Medvedev in the event.

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Opelka's withdrawal is a blow for the event, especially after Nick Kyrgios also confirmed his omission from the 2023 UTS due to injury. In an interview with Tennis Majors, Opelka explained that he was not at the desired fitness level to take part in the event, but might have been able to compete if it was just one week later.

“I’ve had my ups and downs for a while, but I’m finally on the right track. I was telling Jeremy Chardy that if UTS happened a week later, I could play – or maybe two weeks later – I’m pretty confident, but I’m not quite there yet.”

“I haven’t started serving yet. I think that’s the most important thing right now, trusting my wrist to serve with strength. That’s the only thing that’s still holding me back. I can do it, which is great, but the problem is that after one or two days of intense service, my wrist is still a little irritated. So I have to be careful.”