Casper Ruud wasn't able to win his maiden grand slam at
Roland Garros (French Open) but he stayed positive after the match believing his time will come.
The Norwegian hasn't had the best of years this year but managed to kind of reignite his season at Roland Garros producing his best effort of the year to advance to yet another final. He faced Djokovic in the final and battled him well for a while but slowly but surely Djokovic found a way to overpower him.
It's a disappointing finish for Ruud but there are some positives. He found his tennis again and regained confidence that he can still do it against the best on the biggest of stages. That will be very important for next year. He also managed to defend all of his points from last year and losing those would have hurt quite a bit:
"It was nice two weeks, nice to feel I could perform under pressure. Losing 1000 ATP points would not have been fun for the rankings. I've learned that last year was not just a coincidence and I have more experience at Roland-Garros."
Return to Grass
Up next for him and anybody else on Tour is the grass season. It's not his best surface or favourite surface as he once joked that grass is strictly for golf and not tennis but he's looking forward to it now despite his tennis not being the best of fits on it:
"Grass ? It's fun to play on grass. It just doesn't suit my game very well, I feel a little bit uncomfortable on it. But it's always so fun to come at Wimbledon, maybe the most historic event that we have. I'll try to give my best."
Ruud will certainly figure out a good way to play on it in time. Maybe this year.