"He won’t have the guts to scream again": Casper Ruud calls for fan protocol changes after Madrid controversy

Madrid Open finalist Casper Ruud has spoken out about the controversial moments during his semifinal match against Francisco Cerundolo. The Norwegian tennis star visibly displayed his annoyance during his semifinal victory (6-4, 7-5) that propelled him to his third Masters 1000 final.

The world No. 15 had an exchange with the chair umpire after his serve was repeatedly interrupted by shouts from the crowd, who appeared to be attempting to distract him. In the second set [6-4, 2-2], the former world No. 2 found himself increasingly agitated by repeated shouts emanating from the stands as he prepared to serve.

Ruud's frustration boiled over, leading him to approach the chair umpire to voice his concerns. "Have you ever listened to some Norwegian doing this?" the 3-time Grand Slam runner-up began. "How many times can they scream before I can demand something? How many seconds before I can demand another serve or a replay?" insisted an annoyed Ruud.

While waiting to play the final this Sunday against Jack Draper, he referred to his dispute with the chair umpire. "Well, ultimately it's a question of kind of the disturbance. I felt that the cheers were for Francisco (Cerundolo), which is obviously not illegal, it's just a question of the timing of it,” he said. “I think personally that if the umpire, like, let's say I redid my routine and I was about to serve again, and he would do it again, like what's the protocol there?"

"How many times is a fan or someone from the crowd kind of allowed to disturb the player before I'm kind of allowed to react back. I asked the umpire a hypothetical question, you know, If you were to give me a first serve for me complaining, you think he would do it again?"

"Probably not, because he's cheering for Francisco, and if the player he's cheering for is punished with me getting a first serve, I don't think he will, you know, have the guts to scream again or clap again or whatever that is that he's doing to disturb me before my second serve."

"So I'm just kind of asking the question, Maybe you should look at maybe not changing the rules, but applying some more pressure to fans who are there to heckle or disturb. I understand, and that's really harsh for Francisco, because he hasn't done anything wrong, and I don't want to, you know, be a douche towards him, but the fans that are in favor for him are trying to disturb me."

"So if they see that that's not working, and I'm actually benefiting from them trying to disturb me, I think they wouldn't do it anymore. It's a very kind of tricky situation, and I understand that fans are allowed to cheer for whoever they want, but in tennis I feel like there is a somewhat of a kind of unwritten rules of what you do and what you shouldn't do as a spectator."

"The majority of the fans get it right, but when someone is there to disturb a bit too much, I think it crosses a line. So I just kind of asked the question to the umpire, and when you're in the heat of the moment and you don't feel like you get a clear answer, it's easy to kind of get even more frustrated. And I maybe overreacted, but I think it was a valid question."