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Norwegian tennis star Casper Ruud was in great spirits after winning the Geneva Open. Ruud, ranked at No. 21 in the world, beat world No. 15 Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (6) 6-4 to lift his maiden Geneva title. Ruud has had a great preparation for the French Open as he recently made the semifinal at the Madrid Masters.
“It feels great that I’ve been playing well lately and reaching the later stages in my past tournaments,” Ruud said in his post-match press conference. “It is a big confidence-booster ahead of Roland Garros… It was a close match today and it could have gone either way”.
Ruud survived a tight first set
As not a single break point was seen in the first set -- it went into a tie-break -- in which Ruud blew four consecutive set points before realizing his fifth to win a tight opener. Ruud claimed the first break of the match in the fifth game and held on to his serve the rest of the way to book a straight-set win.
"It was a tough first set, it was very close,” Ruud said. “We were both serving great so there weren’t that many rallies after the serve on both sides because of the high level. But in the tie-break there were some rallies here and there… Happily for me I won the first set, and I think that gave me a little bit of confidence to calm down a little bit – not to relax, but to play more freely”.
Ruud now has two ATP titles in his collection. “It feels as good to win today as it did in Buenos Aires [in 2020],” Ruud said. “I was more mature this week, knowing that I won a title before. It’s something else to do it the second time, but it’s the same great winning taste and winning feeling”.