“Dude was honored to script this match” Tennis Twitter accuses Casper Ruud of foul play after Rafael Nadal registers his ‘only’ win at the 2022 ATP Finals

“Dude was honored to script this match” Tennis Twitter accuses Casper Ruud of foul play after Rafael Nadal registers his ‘only’ win at the 2022 ATP Finals

Casper Ruud and Rafael Nadal (L- IMAGO / Shutterstock, R- (IMAGO/ Nicolo Campo))

22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal ended his stay in Turin with a win over Casper Ruud in his final group stage match at the ATP Finals. Nadal won the match in straight sets 7-5,7-5 to finish the group with 1 win and 2 losses. Earlier, he lost to Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime to crash out of contention for the knockouts.

Nadal looked a much better player than in his previous two matches. He was finally hitting the ball early from the baseline and took charge of the rallies. Unlike the first two matches, he took played offensively and went for his shots. He was cautious from the backhand but still managed to hit winners.

With this, Ruud has moved into the semifinals where he’ll face either Andrey Rublev or Stefanos Tsitsipas but after his loss against Nadal, he is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Ruud is a huge Nadal fan and is a product of the Rafa Nadal Academy. So some fans are accusing him of being soft against Nadal.

Ruud never defeated Nadal in his career and in both meetings, has looked very sloppy. He came into the match with two wins against two very good players while Rafa had lost to them in his previous two matches. Still, surprisingly, Nadal suddenly raised his game and many believe that it is suspicious on Ruud’s part.

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Casper Ruud
Casper Ruud (IMAGO / PanoramiC)

Tennis Twitter is now accusing Ruud of foul play and cheating as he suddenly dropped his level at 5-6 in both sets. Some claim that this is because of his love and respect for Nadal.

https://twitter.com/hield32/status/1593256637854195714

However, these accusations are totally baseless as no reports of foul play have come across. This can purely be based on matchups as Ruud’s slow game suits Nadal’s style of play very well.

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