Novak Djokovic recently lost to a player ranked outside the Top 100, which motivated Casper Ruud ahead of their match at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters.
Before the semi-final match at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo, Ruud had never beaten Djokovic, nor had he ever won a set against the Serbian, but in Monaco, he finally stepped up and did it.
The 24-time major winner played a good match overall, but he didn't play well enough to win it, and much of that had to do with Ruud's confidence. There was no fear this time around, unlike the match at Roland Garros.
He took it to Djokovic early, and it made a big difference. After all, it ended with a double fault by Djokovic, which shows the pressure the Norwegian put him under, which hadn't been the case in matches before this one.
"Obviously Novak is Novak. He's human. Sometimes he doesn't seem like it, but he is like everyone else. I think what really motivated me and helped me a bit today was maybe that I thought about, you know, he lost a match in Indian Wells to Luca Nardi, and he showed there that he's also vulnerable sometimes."
None of that would have happened if Ruud hadn't shifted his perspective, and quite a bit of that had to do with the Norwegian seeing what happened in Indian Wells when Djokovic lost to the world no. 123, Luca Nardi.
"Not many times in a year, but a few days here and there he's possible to beat. Luckily for me I was able to think about those thoughts in the end of the third set and take advantage of it, believing more in myself that I could beat him now than before, because he didn't have that perfect record so far this year, and that kind of is how tennis works."
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