Casper Ruud is hoping to upset dominant world number one Jannik Sinner in the Italian Open final.
Ruud reached the Italian Open final for the first time after emphatically beating Luciano Darderi 6-1, 6-1.
The Norwegian had more time than his final opponent, as Sinner and Daniil Medvedev’s semifinal was halted due to a rain delay.
As Ruud prepares to play Sinner in the Italian Open final, he has relayed a comment that Andrey Rublev made about the four-time Grand Slam champion.
Casper Ruud hoping to end ‘unplayable’ Jannik Sinner’s streak
After reaching the final of the Italian Open, Ruud spoke to Tennis Channel, where he was asked about the potential challenge of playing Sinner, despite not knowing his final opponent at that point.
Ruud admitted that Sinner seems ‘unplayable’, but was holding on to what Rublev said earlier on in the tournament, suggesting that the Italian is getting closer to his current 28-match winning streak coming to an end every match he plays.
Who will win the Italian Open final?
Jannik Sinner vs Casper Ruud
“You know, he sort of looks unplayable and unbeatable these days,” said Ruud. “But you have to just try and think he is human too and at some point, I think Andrey said it well, when you keep winning and winning you will get closer to that first loss in a while, you know you just hope whenever I show up that will be the day.
“I guess I just have to think that raising one level is not going to be enough against this guy, you have to raise it two, three or four times and see if you can hang with him from there. But, I realise that if I want to beat him I have to probably play my best match of the year and let’s try to do that.”
Ruud has failed to beat Sinner in their four previous meetings, and has lost all eight sets they have played against each other.
This includes at the Italian Open last year, where Sinner beat Ruud for the loss of just one game.
Casper Ruud reveals the ranking goal he set himself for Roland Garros
After failing to defend his Madrid Open title, Ruud fell to his lowest ranking in five years, dropping down to world number 25.
Ruud has now secured his place back inside the top 20 due to his run to the Italian Open final, and he revealed that he wanted to be around world number 15 heading into Roland Garros.
“Well, I was ranked around 13/14 in the world before Madrid came around and I told myself most likely, if you’re looking at all the statistics, I won’t win the tournament again, but I will give it my best,” said Ruud.
“I ended up not and fell back to what 25 this week and now kind of re-entering top 20 which is a good feeling after just a few weeks out of it. I was thinking that if I can be around 15 heading into Roland Garros I will have some chances, because I lost early last year there and during the summer I didn’t get many points.
“So I have a lot of things to try to gain now, kind of defending a bit whatever happened in Madrid last year, now with a good result here. You can never really know the good weeks or the deep runs, but happy to get one here.”
How underrated is Casper Ruud?
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Ruud is currently 17th in the live rankings, but following the withdrawals of Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti, he is currently on track to be the 15th seed at Roland Garros.
If he is able to beat Sinner in the final, Ruud would climb up to world number 15 in the ATP rankings after the Italian Open.
This all bodes well for Ruud, who is also currently in the top 10 of the race to the ATP Finals.
