With every win he notches at Roland Garros, Casper Ruud is developing an aura.
And by vocalising his mentality and process, his opponents are aware – they must sustain an impressively high level for hours if they want to get past him.
Ruud has been one of the top-performing players on clay this spring, winning the Barcelona and Geneva titles after finishing runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Monte Carlo Masters.
With four match wins at Roland Garros so far, Ruud improves to 21-4 on clay in 2024 and is back at the business end of this tournament for the third straight year.
Ruud offered some insight into the mentality driving him so successfully in the French capital, after arriving in the quarterfinals with a four-set win over Taylor Fritz.
“He broke me early (in the second set),” Ruud said, “and then from there, I just told myself: ‘Time to step up, going to do just my best to just get into the zone and stay there’.”
His focus on stepping up his performance and maintaining a high intensity has meant ongoing success at Roland Garros, where he has won 16 of his past 18 matches.
When previewing the tournament, Australian tennis legend Todd Woodbridge singled Ruud out as a player poised to strike in what was shaping as an unusually open men’s field.
“He's that consistent one that gets through to the finals. But this may be his chance (to better that) – it just depends on mentally how he looks at it,” Woodbridge said at the time.
“Can he make three finals in a row? That's hard to do.”
It is indeed hard, but Ruud is now one victory away from doing exactly that.
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He enjoyed the good fortune of avoiding a quarterfinal showdown with Novak Djokovic, when the world No.1 and defending champion withdrew because of a meniscus tear.
Nevertheless, Ruud – who upset Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semifinals – was already talking confidently ahead of a 2023 final rematch with the legendary Serb.
“I think honestly I ended up in a pretty tough section of the draw and a lot of good players on the way here that I have been able to overcome,” Ruud reflected, after also beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
“The goal is not necessarily to play three perfect sets every time and win straight sets, but sometimes you just have to think: ‘OK, I won't play perfect but I'm going to be a tough player to beat in best-of-five sets on clay’.
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“That's the kind of mentality that has been working for me. I know if the opponents want to beat me, they're going to have to play really good tennis for at least three full sets, and I'm going to try to make it tough for them.
“Physically I'm going to try to be in good shape and make them suffer if I can. With my technical game I'm going to try to play heavy and play the kind of clay-court tennis that I like playing.
“It's been working well the last two, three years here.”
Last year it worked very well in the semifinals against Alexander Zverev, whom Ruud dominated 6-3 6-4 6-0 to reach his third Grand Slam final.
He faces Zverev at the same stage in 2024, and is expected to be the fresher of the pair when they clash on Friday at Court Philippe Chatrier.
Even if Ruud hadn’t enjoyed the extra rest due to his quarterfinal walkover, Zverev has twice been extended to five sets and escaped from several perilous positions against opponents this fortnight.
Will his engine run out in the semifinals?
Whatever transpires, Ruud will certainly force Zverev to dig deeper again into his physical and mental reserves if he wants to remain alive at Roland Garros.