Ruud Responds To Sinner’s Ban With Candid Verdict After Misquotes Stir Controversy
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Casper Ruud said what he thinks about Jannik Sinner and his three-month suspension after being previously misquoted.
Tennis players are often asked unique questions. Because of that, it's, most of the time, impossible to make a mistake when it comes to who said what. But exactly that happened recently.
Ruud recently competed at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in Guadalajara, and many players at the event were asked about Sinner's three-month suspension.
One of them was supposed to be Ruud, as his quotes were published by multiple publications, with most of them sourcing the French publication Le Parisien.
However, after a few hours, it became apparent that the quotes were incorrectly assigned to Ruud, but in reality, they were said by Flavio Cobolli, who is Sinner's compatriot.
Even Ruud noticed the mistake only and provided a statement saying that he wasn't the one who said those words.
"Hey guys! Just wanted to say that I never said this. I was asked about the case last week, and simply said I didn’t have any comments as I hadn’t read the full statement at that point. Very bad and untrustworthy journalism. However I do think Jannik is a good guy."
"I’m sure I will be asked again at the upcoming media day in Acapulco this coming weekend, so any other statements you might read from me is hopefully correct then."
Ruud knew he would be asked about the topic at the 2025 Mexican Open in Acapulco, and he did. The Norwegian player spoke to journalist Ben Rothenberg and shared his honest opinion about Sinner's doping case.
"Yeah. I think... I feel sorry for Jannik. He’s, in my view, not done anything intentionally. And, you know, it is not the first time it has happened—but it doesn’t happen often—that settlements happen in a potential doping sentence, which was probably surprising for a few people."
"When you look at the [legal system], it’s not unusual that it happens when someone is about to go to trial. I mean, there’s many other cases where settlements happened just before a trial. So, my understanding, if I was in Jannik’s shoes, of course I would love to have the possibility to defend myself in an open trial, which I'm sure he was going for."
"But when you go trial, there is—if I try to put myself in his shoes—I mean, if you go to trial, there's always a risk that you might be found guilty, even if you aren’t guilty, if the juries or the judges see things in a different way. I mean, look at how many cases in the world someone has gone to jail when he wasn't guilty, or she wasn't guilty."
Ruud saw why both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sinner found a three-month suspension as reasonable. At the same time, he also showed support for the current ATP World No. 1 player.
"So, I mean, there's always a risk that you might be found guilty even though you aren't. So, a settlement of three months—or a suspension of three months—was something that both were happy to do. Still, I feel sorry for Jannik."
"He will be out, he will miss 4 out of 9 Masters 1000s for something he didn't intentionally do. So I hope he keeps his head high. Me personally, I’m always rooting for him. I think it's a joy to watch him play, and I hope the three months go by quickly for him."
"Yeah, it’s just sad for him, and tennis as a sport, when the World No. 1 goes through something like this. And I guess that's kind of my thought about it at the moment."
