Casper Ruud dismisses Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic’s chances at winning the 2022 ATP Finals backing the young players to win the title


Casper Ruud dismisses Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic’s chances at winning the 2022 ATP Finals backing the young players to win the title

Casper Ruud, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the ATP Finals 2022

Casper Ruud is jubilant after his win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in his first match of the Green Group stage in Turin at the ATP Finals. He won this match in straight sets. He will be playing against Taylor Fritz on November 15.

This year’s ATP Finals tournament has become interesting as the majority of the players who managed to qualify for the season-ending tournament are in their 20s. Stefanos Tsitsipas (24 years old) and Daniil Medvedev (26 years old) have won the tournament once already. Alexander Zverev (25 years old) has won it twice.

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Meanwhile, he took a dig at the older players such as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. He thinks that the younger generation is here to topple the legends off their thrones. He also believes that this year too, a younger player will win the ATP Finals title.

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“I think all the younger players here, we hope one young player will win again this year,” said Ruud in a post-match interview as reported by English daily The Express.

The Norwegian also highlighted the fact that the sport has become more open and fast in this tournament. Also, the conditions help. It is more suitable for the younger generation.

“We also play best-of-three sets, and it is indoor. It goes faster than maybe outdoors or when you play best-of-five sets in a Grand Slam. These things make it a little bit more open. It’s been fun to see that Sascha has won it two times now I believe. Tsitsipas won once. Medvedev won it. It shows that in the last years it’s been a good tournament for the younger players,” he remarked.

I think we are all here because we deserve to be here and we all I think have a chance to beat each other. Let’s see in the end. But, yeah, I think it’s more open due to the fact that it’s late in the year, it’s quite fast, and it’s only best-of-three. That makes the margins a little bit slimmer than maybe a five-set match,” Continuing his train of thought, he further added.

Casper Ruud requires another win to advance into the semi-finals round of the tournament. He must be very happy with his performance on the court till now, but he must not take the two masters lightly.

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Casper Ruud sees the dominance of Djokovic and Nadal in the sport coming to an end

Casper Ruud
Casper Ruud (IMAGO / PanoramiC)

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal with Roger Federer dominated the tennis sport for the first two decades of the 21st century. Most of the Grand Slam titles during this time were won by these three players. They still dominate in the Grand Slams as the Spaniard won the Australian Open and French Open titles this year and the Serb won the Wimbledon.

But Casper Ruud won to end their domination in the ATP Finals. Novak Djokovic though has admitted that he will love to dominate the sport till the time he can. He has won the ATP Finals five times and is on the cusp of history equaling Roger Federer’s record of winning the prestigious tournament six times.

Rafael Nadal though, has never won this tournament. But Casper Ruud thinks that the two greats will not be able to win the tournament this time.

We all hope it’s us. Novak and Rafa will try to think it’s time for the little bit older guys to win once again. I think all the younger players here, we hope one young player will win again this year. Let’s see who ends up winning,” he said.

The ATP Finals 2022 will be a struggle between the younger generation as they will try to win the tournament. While the older guys will be looking to add another trophy to their trophy cabinet. This struggle is what makes this competition interesting and worth remembering.

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