all the records he\u2019s breaking<\/a>,\u201d Ruud said. \u201cAt the end of the day, he\u2019s human.\u201d<\/p>\nThe line was, in its way, the closing beat of a fortnight in Rome in which Ruud has done something unusual: described his own game with the kind of clarity most players are too pressured to attempt. The three press conferences he has given here \u2013 after Lehecka in the third round (6-3, 6-4), after Musetti in the round of 16 (6-3, 6-1), and after Darderi in the semi-finals on Friday (6-1, 6-1) \u2013 read as a progression.<\/p>\n
Each is more confident than the one before. Together, they chase away the doubts that had built around him through the spring: the calf injury that forced him to retire against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16 at Monte-Carlo in early April, the resulting withdrawal from Barcelona, and the third-round Madrid loss to lucky-loser Alexander Blockx two weeks ago \u2013 at the tournament he was returning to defend his 2025 title.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m standing here today with the worse ranking that I have had (No.25), I feel like I\u2019m a better player than what I was two, three, four years ago\u201d <\/p>\n
Ruud arrived in Rome carrying weeks of physical and tactical doubt. He leaves it, by his own description on Friday, having played some of his best clay-court tennis in a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny because when I\u2019m standing here today with the ranking that I have (No.25), which is worse than what I have been, I feel like I\u2019m a better player than what I was two, three, four years ago,\u201d Ruud said. \u201cRanking doesn\u2019t always kind of reflect on how you feel on court. That\u2019s okay. I\u2019m also realistic, realizing I lost a few matches that maybe I shouldn\u2019t have lost. Quality of tennis is just rising and rising. Even though I feel like I\u2019ve upped my level since two, three, four years ago, other players have done the same, or even more so. They have a better curve than myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, after the 6-1, 6-1 win over Luciano Darderi that put him in his first Rome final, Ruud was, by his own description, where he wanted to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here early, I think I came here on Saturday two weeks ago to prepare and get ready,\u201d he said. \u201cHonestly, the first days I was not feeling the ball great. I was feeling quite tired because the rallies here are a bit different than in Madrid. I was thinking, if I feel a bit tired or feel these conditions, the opponent probably feels the same. So we are all in the same situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Momentum and confidence<\/p>\n
Then the structural progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got off to a good start in the tournament and built some confidence from there. The match with Lehecka I won in the third round was building momentum and confidence for me. From there I\u2019ve been trying to focus on the things that went well there and keep it going, improve even more if I can. Every day I felt a bit better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then the sentence that lands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe couple of sets against Khachanov and today are some of the best I\u2019ve felt on court in a long time. So that\u2019s a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, he plays the player he has named as one of the two unicorns of the men\u2019s game. He has lost his last meeting to Sinner badly (Rome last year, 6-0, 6-1) and was, by his own admission on Friday, \u201cblown out of the court\u201d by Sinner. \u201cYou have to not raise your level, but two or three times, in order to hang with him,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal I will think about for tomorrow in practice and the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner is one win from completing the Career Golden Masters. Ruud is one win from his second Masters 1000 title on clay. Both endings are plausible. Well, one of the two more than the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casper Ruud will play his fifth final on the biggest clay stages, Roland-Garros and the three clay-court Masters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-676459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}