"I don't understand": Bartoli questions Ruud after poor Australian Open following breakout 2022 season

Former player Marion Bartoli has questioned the thinking of Casper Ruud when he elected to essentially give up on the Australian Open due to not preparing well.

Ruud continued playing after the ATP finals going on a tour across South America with Nadal. The Norwegian spent about two weeks in a fast-paced gruelling schedule with Nadal which pushed back his vacation. It started when other players started to prepare for the next year and he never properly caught up.

Bartoli didn't understand why he did that after having a breakout season:

“After being in the final of the US Open and the Masters, I thought he would ride this wave. But he said very early on that he would go to the Australian Open just because it was a Grand Slam but he knew he would lose early and he would prepare for the new season after the Australian Open. I don’t remember ever hearing that from a player.”

The Norwegian lost early in the Australian Open which was expected and Bartoli simply could not understand it. She did add that if he's content with it, it's not a problem but it didn't make much sense:

“He went on that tour and because of that, he took his holiday afterwards when the new season was about to start again so he didn’t have time to prepare for it. When you’re already a two-time Grand Slam finalist and also at the Masters, the next step is to win a major, that goes without saying and you accept not having any pre-season and having more or less no chance at the Australian Open, that’s a way of thinking that I don’t understand, that I think is weird but if he’s okay with it, great.”