By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday May 4, 2025
Losing big matches, time after time, can take a toll on a player’s psyche. Credit Casper Ruud for never letting that happen to him.
Prior to Sunday’s triumph in Madrid, where he won his maiden Masters 1000 title, the Norwegian had lost three Grand Slam finals, another two Masters finals, and an ATP Finals title match, while capturing just one set across all six.
A caveat: none of them were choke jobs. Two came against Novak Djokovic (at the ATP Finals in 2022 and Roland-Garros in 2023), one against Rafael Nadal (Roland-Garros in 2022), and another two against Carlos Alcaraz (Miami and the US Open in 2022). He’s been in over his head, and really who wouldn’t have been against those players at those times?
What’s most important is that Ruud has bided his time and continued to grow his game.
Label him as one of the best clay-courters in tennis, and no one will argue. His 125-35 record with 12 titles on the surface since the start of 2020 will strengthen the argument. Label him as a guy who can’t win the big one, and no there’s a counter argument.
Ruud dropped his demons like clay dust from the sole of a tennis shoe on Sunday, and though he downplayed the importance of the win, it is sure to give him juice for the rest of the clay season, and maybe the rest of his career.
This week in Madrid when he got another chance to win a big title he knew it was time to put the pedal to the metal. He did so in impressive fashion, pulling away from surging Jack Draper to claim a well-deserved moment in the sun. Ruud, 26, is the third Scandinavian man to ever claim a Masters title, and the first since 2000. He’s the first from Norway to accomplish the feat.
“This was my seventh big final, if you count them all,” Ruud said. “So seven is, like, a lucky number, I guess. So it was worth the wait in the end. I’ve never really been too close in any of the finals when I look back. I’ve lost the majority of them in straight sets.”
Ruud called his title “ironic” because the theme of his season until last week has been one of underachieving. But he has used his time in Madrid to completely change the shape of his year.
“I still kind of feel like it’s a bit ironic, because if you look at my year this year, there’s been one really good tournament, which was Dallas, where I reached a final, and other than that, it’s been earlier losses than I hoped, more losses than I hoped.
“But it’s a long season, and I have tried to think about that. It’s like a marathon, not a sprint.”
Ruud hopes he can keep this pace through the rest of the spring. He plans to play in Rome, Geneva and Roland-Garros, where he is a two-time runner up and, suddenly, a top contender.
But first he’ll have to process today’s triumph.
“Even though I won today, my record in big finals is still not good, it’s 1-6,” he said. “I’ve been in many unbelievable and incredible positions in my career, and I’ve been able to experience some great things and, unfortunately, have been on the losing spectrum of many of those matches, but that’s okay. In many ways, my career has gone better than maybe I thought was possible sometimes.
“Of course I always dreamed about winning tournaments like this or Grand Slams or becoming world No. 1, and I’ve been fairly close, but it’s not like I was serving for the match anytime or [holding a lead] and then choked and lost in a way. So I’ve just played that were better than me, and I’ve tried to learn from that, and I think that one day there will come another opportunity and maybe I can seize it and, I guess, that was the key to the victory today.”
