Casper Ruud was unable to end Jannik Sinner’s winning streak in the Italian Open final.
Ruud reached the final of the Italian Open for the first time in his career after beating the likes of Lorenzo Musetti, Luciano Darderi and Jiri Lehecka in Rome.
The Norwegian was hoping to become the first player since February to beat Sinner, but Ruud was ultimately beaten 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
After Sinner made tennis history at the Italian Open, Ruud was full of praise for the world number one.
Casper Ruud speaks about Jannik Sinner after Italian Open final loss
In the post-match ceremony after the match, Ruud waxed lyrical about Sinner, who he claimed it was an ‘honour’ to compete against.
“First of all, I think the only thing to do is to congratulate Jannik,” Ruud said on court. “It’s your first title here…what you’re doing this year it’s hard to describe with words, as someone who is also playing tennis at a high level at times, to realise what you’re doing it’s hard to describe, it’s really an honour to watch you play, to be able to share the court with you today in this beautiful arena at your home Masters 1000.
“So congratulations to you for making history for yourself, your country, for your team, it’s fantastic to witness.”
Can anyone now stop Jannik Sinner from winning Roland Garros after Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal?
If yes, who?
Ruud then turned his attention to his own team, and particularly his daughter, who was born in January earlier this year.
“Second, I would like to thank my own team, it’s a bit hard to talk and look at them,” admitted Ruud. “It’s been a little bit of an interesting year for me on and off the court, very good year off the court.
“My fiancée and I had a daughter at the beginning of the year. I just wanted to say that we brought her, our daughter, to Rome and she has been a good luck charm for us and we will try again next year to bring her and see if we can win the title in the future, so it was a very good time for us.”
As well as praising Sinner, Ruud also highlighted how well the whole of Italian tennis is doing right now, before bringing his speech to a conclusion.
“I just wanted to say that the Italian Tennis Federation are doing an incredible job, what Jannik is doing, but also after Jannik you have six, seven, eight unbelievable players who are taking tennis by storm,” Ruud said.
“I know that in football it is a different story at the moment, sorry, but when you are losing to Norway we have to be able to make a bit of jokes. But all jokes around, lastly I want to say thank you to the fans here, the atmosphere is amazing every single day and I can’t wait to come back next year, thank you so much!”
How underrated is Casper Ruud?
He's into another Masters 1000 final…
When could Casper Ruud play Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros?
Attention will now turn to Roland Garros for Sinner, while Ruud is actually still in the draw for the Geneva Open next week.
Ruud fell to his lowest ranking in five years after the Madrid Open, but he has now made strides back to improving this.
After reaching the Italian Open final, Ruud is confirmed to climb eight places back inside the top 20 of the ATP rankings at world number 17.
With both Musetti and Carlos Alcaraz already withdrawn from Roland Garros, this means that Ruud will be the 15th seed in Paris.
This means that Ruud could play Sinner as early as the fourth round at Roland Garros this year, as he is confirmed to have one of the top four seeds in his forecasted fourth round draw.
There is just a week to go until Roland Garros gets underway, with the main draw starting on Sunday, May 24.
