Casper Ruud was initially set to play at the 2024 Kitzbuhel Open, but the Norwegian has withdrawn from the ATP 250 tournament.
Ruud is one of the players who rejoiced most when Roland Garros was chosen as the venue for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The Norwegian loves to play on clay; results-wise, it's his best surface.
If he could win a medal at the Olympics, the likelihood of that happening increases exponentially on clay. As we know, it's not common for Olympic tennis to be played on clay.
The venues have been mostly hard-court, and that's not going to change much in the future, so having the Olympics on clay during peak years is certainly a great opportunity for Ruud.
That being said, the Norwegian wasn't able to prepare a lot for the Games this year. He opted to play at the 2024 Bastad Open this week and signed up to play in Kitzbuhel next week, but he won't be playing in Austria.
It's an interesting choice because his Bastad Open run didn't go that well. He made the final last year but was beaten in his first match this year by Thiago Monteiro.
That was a shocking loss that nobody saw coming, including Ruud, and it basically cut short what he hoped would be at least a three-match week in Bastad. He did get some more tennis in by playing doubles with Rafael Nadal, but, of course, there is a huge difference between doubles is not singles.
That's what makes this withdrawal from Kitzbuhel more puzzling. It might just be him making the call on being happy with where he is physically and how he felt in Bastad despite the loss.
After all, we must remember that only a few players have played better than Ruud at Roland Garros in the past few years. Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Alexander Zverev are the only players who outshone Ruud in Paris in the past few years.
The Norwegian made the final in 2022 by beating some excellent players before losing in the final to Rafael Nadal. He returned the next year and made yet another final, beating a possibly even impressive list of players.
That sort of familiarity can't be negated, as he probably feels confident about simply arriving there and playing his game. This year was another great showing from Ruud at Roland Garros, but he missed out on a third consecutive final as he lost to Alexander Zverev in the semi-final.
He still won the opening set 6-2 before losing the next three, struggling with physical issues. With that in mind, Ruud likely concluded that his Olmypics chances would be better served if he skipped going to Kitzbuhel.
Another possibility is that he hoped to play a couple more doubles matches in Bastad with Nadal, but that wouldn't happen as the 38-year-old withdrew from the doubles tournament, citing fatigue as a reason for his withdrawal, which naturally, impacted the Norwegian player as well.
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