Casper Ruud laments sudden stomach bug during Alexander Zverev loss at Roland Garros

Casper Ruud lost out in the semi-finals of the 2024 French Open as he couldn't make it three finals in a row in Paris with a stomach bug seeing him fall apart after an incredible opening set from the Norwegian. In the end, he lost out to Alexander Zverev.

Zverev will now face off against Carlos Alcaraz in the final on Sunday whilst Ruud will be thinking what could've been. This after priorly having three days off. He got a walkover all the way through to the semi-finals of the French Open after the withdrawal of Novak Djokovic.

He lamented that he didn't have the stomach bug during his days off and said that it set in after the opening set which he won which makes sense given Zverev's dominance from there on out.

“It was a little bit unfortunate. I started well. Towards the middle, end of the first set, I started feeling some discomfort, an ache in my stomach. So I wasn't able to keep the intensity and the energy level up. It was something that was bothering me, just kind of limiting me,” he explained.

“It was a pity. It's not something I think is very serious or going to last for a long time, but something that came up in the first set.”

He added: “I don't have the answers now, but I just [am] disappointed that it had to be today. Why couldn't it be yesterday or day before when I had three days off?” Ruud wondered. “So it was a bit unlucky. I was really looking forward to the match. In a way I started well, but yeah, I wasn't able to keep it up, unfortunately.”

But while that is the case, he is still happy with his season. He said that he is not fully satisfied but that he has made improvements and adjustments which leave him happy with his progression.

“I’m very pleased with how the season has been so far. In my game I've tried to make a few adjustments and improvements, and I think that they've come along pretty well.

“Still, there's a long way to go where I feel like I'm 100% satisfied, and I think that's a good thing. I don't feel like I'm complete yet as a player, very far from it. So I still have a lot of things to work on. “But the season has been great, I would say, to sum it up. This result here in Paris is, in my eyes, a great result, and it was unfortunate and a pity today that it ended this way. But I consider it, let's say, the first half of the year very good, and I'm looking forward to having some time off.”