"If I lose, I lose. Life goes on": Casper Ruud feeling no pressure ahead of title defence in Barcelona despite top-10 spot at stake

Norway’s Casper Ruud has stated that he is concerned about losing a spot in the top-10 of the ATP rankings ahead of the Barcelona Open. The 26-year-old is set to defend his title in the competition this year. He lifted the title last year after beating Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Since then, not much has gone right for the three-time Grand Slam runner-up, as he only managed to win one more ATP title, which was in May last year. This year, his most impressive performance came at the Dallas Open, where he finished as the runner-up after losing to Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-3.

As things stand, Ruud is currently number 10th in the world. He is now set to defend the 500 points he won last year after lifting the title in Barcelona. Failing to do so means he will go out of the top-10. The Oslo-born has spoken to the reporters ahead of his tournament opener, where he stated that he does not feel the pressure of losing a top-10 spot ahead of his title defense in Barcelona. Ruud was of the opinion that he is aware of the consequences, but his focus is more towards ensuring that he performs to the best of his ability.

“What I’ve learned in my years on Tour, and especially the last three or four years, is that results will kind of come and go a bit,” said Ruud. “No matter how good you are, what ranking you are, you will always play players who will play great. Maybe you will have some surprising losses and the ranking will adjust after that. I know that if I don’t win this tournament again this year, I will probably lose my top ten ranking. It’s okay. I will probably wake up and be just the same person as when I was in the top ten. Be happy with my life anyway.” My goal is of course to try to do well and the next few weeks will be very important. For example, in Madrid and Rome I have almost no points to defend,” Ruud explained. You cannot really control when you will have a great week or not and I’m just going to try to play good tennis and let the result come. I don’t really feel pressure at all. I’m just going to do my best and if I don’t do well, if I lose, I lose. Life goes on.”