"Of course, Novak has a point": Casper Ruud supports Novak Djokovic's comment about tough schedule

Norway’s Casper Ruud has made his feelings known about the tough schedule after recent comments from Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic. Schedule has remained a serious point of debate in the tennis world.

Back in 2024, the current world number one, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, became the first high-profile player to complain about the tough schedule. Alcaraz stated that the schedule is going to ‘kill’ some players and also urged the authorities to do something about him, as players are bound to get exhausted.

"I've seen and I've heard a lot of players complain about the schedule, about the calendar as well," said Alcaraz. "So I'm talking about myself, that the schedule, it's been so tight since the first week of January till the last week of November. We have to talk about it ourselves and we have to do something about it."

Recently, Djokovic, who featured at the Shanghai Masters and was knocked out in the semifinals by Poland’s Valentin Vacherot in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, spoke about the tough schedule. Djokovic admitted the tennis schedule remains tough, but also highlighted that the players are not ‘united enough’ to address the problem.

“As a player and someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough,” said Djokovic. “Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make the comments and they complain, and then they go away. And then if something is wrong, after a certain amount of time they come back again. But you have to invest the time, you have to invest energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody, yourself, to dedicate yourself to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players’ interest.”

Ruud has now spoken to Bolavip, where he expressed his views about Djokovic’s comments. Ruud was of the opinion that Djokovic had a valid point. Ruud was of the opinion that players in the top five earn enough to skip tournaments, a luxury not all players can afford.

“Of course, Novak has a point,” said Ruud. “He has more experience than any other player. Sure, you can pick and choose in a way, because we are not hired by the ATP, we are bosses of our own schedule. What I criticised and talked about at the French Open was that there is an economic motivation to play and not skip any Masters 1000s with the bonus and everything. But yeah, sure, if you are in the top 10, top 15, you make a lot of money, but you also spend a lot of money with all the expenses that you have, so you don’t want to miss out on any money if you don’t need to.”

Ruud then went on to highlight that at times, players hide their injuries to earn extra money to look after themselves and at times their families. “I know that if you are not healthy or not eligible to play, you won’t be put in jail if you don’t play, but there is also an economic incentive to play, and some people care more about it than others. But I think the season is long,” said Ruud. “To have a mandatory event like Paris that late in the season makes the season really, really long. It’s the same for everyone, but going forward I will plan the schedule a bit differently, maybe skipping a few events here and there. I had a very hectic three to four years since I reached the top 10. I played a lot of events, and I played some exhibitions in the pre-season, so those are some choices that I have made, which I look back on and think I shouldn’t have done. For the future, that is something I will take into consideration.”