Casper Ruud is coached by his dad, Christian Ruud, but he never thought about firing him as a coach, even though he struggled a lot last year.
The greatest tennis player from Norway was once Christian Ruud. He was quickly replaced by his son Casper Ruud, who has had a better tennis career than his father had.
Still, the senior Ruud is instrumental in his son's success as he served as his coach for much of his career. 2024 saw Ruud return to a really high level, which once took him to a few Grand Slam finals.
It's a far better level than the one he had the year before, which was a proper 'down' year for him. His play was bad, and his ranking tanked so much that he dropped out of the Top 10 on the ATP Tour.
It was a tough year for Ruud, but even then, he never really thought about firing his dad as coach, as he revealed at the 2024 Indian Wells Open. That's an interesting perspective, especially in the coaching carousel era of tennis.
"One year where you don't do as well as the year before and you should change your coach. I don't think that's the way it should work. Of course if you're not happy with your coach you should seek for something else."
Ruud finished last year with only 39 wins, which was the lowest number since the pandemic in 2020. He's already up to 15 wins this year, and we're only at the beginning of March.
That shows how much better he's been this year, so his father as a coach should be safe for the time being, even though the Norwegian admitted they may eventually go separate ways in the future.
"But I'm happy with what my dad does, the work he does, the chemistry we have, the connection we have, and, you know, professional relationship that we have. So it wasn't something that crossed my mind. I do, however, think that at some point in my career I will need to seek maybe other advice, who knows?"
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