“It was not the best start,” Casper Ruud overwhelmed by Norwegian crowd at the UTS as he treats them to a victory over Holger Rune

Casper Ruud defeated Holger Rune 6-21, 14-13, 17-12, 13-12 on Day 1 of UTS Oslo.

“It was not the best start,” Casper Ruud overwhelmed by Norwegian crowd at the UTS as he treats them to a victory over Holger Rune

Casper Ruud (L), Holger Rune (R) (Sources: Mirror, Tennis365)

Casper Ruud and Holger Rune recently went head-to-head in a Group B match of the ongoing UTS Oslo. Norway is usually known to admire winter sports more but the Norwegian fans showed on Day 1 of the tournament that they love tennis equally. In fact, Ruud, who is a native of the country, was shocked to see the reception and crowd support that he received throughout his match against Rune. 

Ruud said, after the game(via: Tennis Major)

It is difficult to describe; incredible, really. I’m really surprised in a positive way how loud they were — compared to for example, Davis Cup matches I played at home, this is a 10 times more energetic crowd. I’m hoping that playing tennis in this stadium can be a future for Norway.
Casper Ruud said
YouTube video

Casper Ruud won the match 6-21, 14-13, 17-12, 13-12. UTS matches are played in quarters and Ruud won the first quarter by a whopping trail of 15 points. However, he was quick to make a comeback in the match and defeated the Dane by winning the next three quarters. The crowd barely stopped making noise at any point in the match and that clearly motivated Ruud a lot. 

FS Video

Speaking about the same, Ruud said:

For sure I wanted to get the crowd going in the beginning. It was not the best start, but luckily we were playing best of five quarters. I had some time to get back in, and the home crowd supported me throughout the whole match. So it was amazing.
Casper Ruud said

Casper Ruud admits that he was nervous ahead of his match against Holger Rune 

Casper Ruud revealed that he was extremely nervous ahead of his match against Holger Rune because he has never played in front of a crowd like this in his country. However, he was exhilarated to have won the match in front of his home crowd. 

Casper-Ruud-in-action
Casper Ruud in action (Image via Imago)

Speaking about the game, Ruud said:

I was a little bit nervous, maybe more than I expected. But it’s normal; I had never played [in front of] a crowd in Norway like this, so what do you expect?… To have this at home was an incredible feeling. 

Casper Ruud said

The last tournament Casper Ruud featured in was the Australian Open. After two great wins against Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Max Purcell, respectively, in the first two rounds, he lost to Cameron Norrie in the third round to get eliminated. He will feature in Los Cabos next, which is an ATP 250 event, starting on February 19. 

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