"I don't play with much confidence these days": Casper Ruud admits belief not there after shock US Open loss

Casper Ruud was dumped out by the World No.109, Raphael Collignon with the rising Belgian winning in five against the 12th seed in one of the main upsets thus far.

Ruud at the US Open summed up what has been a pretty disappointing season for the Norwegian who won Madrid but apart from that he lost in the second round at both the Australian Open and French Open. He was hampered by a knee injury in Paris which later saw him withraw from Wimbledon.

He reached the fourth round in Canada before losing to Karen Khachanov. Then in Cincinnati, he lost to Arthur Rinderknech. That rollercoaster run continued with the Norwegian losing out this time at Flushing Meadows fairly comfortably. Albeit at other times he has been blighted. In particular by knee issues during Wimbledon which saw him withraw before the tournament began.

This after a good pre Roland Garros and it looked like he was turning a corner only to get injured and not be able to seal the win that he needed. As a result he is very much low on confidence right now something he touched upon during his press conference with quotes from New York Post.

He admitted that he is increasingly lacking in confidence. He said that the last few matches not going great and him not being able to seal wins is getting him down. He is also seeing where he is going wrong and not being able to put it right as such which is also a proble,.

He said that he is hitting it on his frame and mishitting a lot which just confound his woes as Collignon moves on to play Jiri Lehecka after the biggest win of his life for a spot in the fourth round. “It’s a mix of what you do in practice, how the last matches have gone, which have not been great,” The New York Post quoted Ruud as saying. “I haven’t won that many matches, let’s say, in the last two, three months, also due to being out for a bit, but when I came back, I didn’t win that many matches to build up a lot of confidence in the matches. Also, feeling of mishitting a lot of shots, hitting a lot of frames out of my forehand, which is supposed to be my best shot. It’s not a good feeling.”

Then he made a point which in reality just summed it all up that he is lacking confidence in a pretty down in the dumps assessment of his current predicament. The only good thing for Ruud is that he says he goes into the matches confident but whether he can execute is another thing.

He added that not executing the good feeling is what is getting him down ultimately over the fact that he is fully own in the dumps. He moves on now towards the Asian hard court swing and is in a desperate bid to remain in the top 10. It is looking increasingly likely that he will skip out of the top 10 for the first time in years at the end of the year which kind of sums up his year to date.

“I can just honestly say I don’t play with much confidence these days,” he said. “Will I try to go back, practice even better, harder? Yes, for sure. And am I motivated? Yes, but in the matches I don’t over-boost confidence at them at the moment.”

His opponent on the other hand is having perhaps the year of his life so far and that continues. He has unlocked the section of the draw too so is very much in for a great latter half of the tournament if he can now shock Lehecka.