Casper Ruud Explains His Frustration With Umpire After Fan Incident In Madrid
NewsSaturday, 03 May 2025 at 10:32
Casper Ruud was frustrated during his semi-final match at the 2025 Madrid Open, and he explained what made him angry after the match.
Ruud is one of the best clay-court players on the ATP Tour, and he once again proved it by reaching the final at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid. He will meet Jack Draper in the final on Sunday.
But to get there, the Norwegian player had to overcome not only Francisco Cerundolo (and all of the previous players that he had to face), but also Cerundolo's fan who tried to disturb him.
At 2-2 in the second set, Ruud was disturbed before attempting to serve, something that happened repeatedly. That's why he approached umpire Manuel Messina, trying to find a solution.
Messina said he would "take care of it," which was something Ruud didn't want to hear. The three-time Grand Slam finalist thought that just asking the fan politely wouldn't be enough.
That's why he asked the umpire at what point he would receive his first serve back, as the fan could have continued disturbing him over and over again, extending the break between his first and second serves.
The umpire struggled to give Ruud any satisfactory response, which didn't make the two-time Roland Garros finalist happy. Eventually, Ruud won the match, but he explained his position after it.
"Well, ultimately it's a question of kind of the disturbance. I felt that the cheers were for Francisco, which is obviously not illegal, it's just a question of the timing of it. I think personally that if the umpire, like, let's say I redid my routine and I was about to serve again, and he would do it again, like what's the protocol there?"
"How many times is a fan or someone from the crowd kind of allowed to disturb the player before I'm kind of allowed to react back. I asked the umpire a hypothetical question, you know, If you were to give me a first serve for me complaining, you think he would do it again?"
"Probably not, because he's cheering for Francisco, and if the player he's cheering for is punished with me getting a first serve, I don't think he will, you know, have the guts to scream again or clap again or whatever that is that he's doing to disturb me before my second serve."
Ruud argued that if the rules were adjusted, benefitting the disturbed player, the fans would have fewer reasons to disturb the players, as that wouldn't necessarily help those whom they are supporting.
"So I'm just kind of asking the question, Maybe you should look at maybe not changing the rules, but applying some more pressure to fans who are there to heckle or disturb. I understand, and that's really harsh for Francisco, because he hasn't done anything wrong, and I don't want to, you know, be a douche towards him, but the fans that are in favor for him are trying to disturb me."
"So if they see that that's not working, and I'm actually benefiting from them trying to disturb me, I think they wouldn't do it anymore. It's a very kind of tricky situation, and I understand that fans are allowed to cheer for whoever they want, but in tennis I feel like there is a somewhat of a kind of unwritten rules of what you do and what you shouldn't do as a spectator."
"The majority of the fans get it right, but when someone is there to disturb a bit too much, I think it crosses a line. So I just kind of asked the question to the umpire, and when you're in the heat of the moment and you don't feel like you get a clear answer, it's easy to kind of get even more frustrated. And I maybe overreacted, but I think it was a valid question."
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