‘I tried to fight fire with fire,’ Casper Ruud shares how he wanted to be aggressive against Carlos Alcaraz in the Miami Masters finals
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Casper Ruud, Carlos Alcaraz
Casper Ruud broke new boundaries as he became the first Norwegian to reach the ATP 1000 Masters finals in Miami. Despite starting really strong against Carlos Alcaraz, Ruud failed to hold on to the lead and eventually ended up finishing as the runners up at the Miami Open.
However, he was happy with his performances at Miami as he never expected to reach the finals. Courtesy of reaching the finals, Ruud will now rise to World No. 7 ranking and it is mostly because of his consistency and dedication.
The 23-year-old started very strongly against the Spaniard as he led the first set 4-1 before losing the plot and allowing Alcaraz to make a comeback. he eventually lost the first set 5-7 allowing the Spaniard to get into his groove. The second set was more straightforward as Ruud ended up second best in the finals of the 2022 Miami Open.
“On the results side, I’m very happy with my result here in Miami,” he said following a 5-7, 4-6 defeat. “Of course disappointing that I couldn’t go all the way, but I didn’t expect myself to reach the final in the first place, so I can’t be too upset about it.”
Casper Ruud credits Carlos Alcaraz and highlighted his areas of improvement ever since they met last year
Ruud earlier met Alcaraz at Andalucian Open at Marbella last year in April where the Spaniard came all guns blazing at him as he was blown away in that game. However this time he was well prepared for the fire that Alcaraz brings to the court and was ready to fight it out with equal panache. The motto almost worked well for the Norwegian as he started all guns blazing but could not maintain that rhythm throughout the finals.
“In our previous match, he was coming at me almost firing flames at me,” Ruud said of their Marbella meeting last April, a straight-sets win for the 18-year-old. “So the idea was to try to fight fire with fire, if I can say it that way, and come out and make him a little bit uncomfortable with how hard I would be hitting the ball, because then he wouldn’t have time to set up his shots.
“I started very well and hit some good winners, big winners and some big forehands. That was the idea.”
The 23-year-old feels that both Alcaraz and he have improved a lot since their first meeting in Spain a year ago. He credited the youngest for being one of the best movers on the court.
“He has kind of that very quick feet movement but also a lot of firepower in his groundstrokes,” Ruud assessed. “And he serves not incredible but heavy and good enough, and he can mix it up well, going out wide. He goes kick serve sometimes on the first serve.
“I have seen Rafa talk about him, saying that he has all the ingredients to make a good salad, and I think that describes it very well,” he added with a smile.
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Atrayo Bhattacharya
(193 Articles Published)