"Why don't you come here and play a real match?": Casper Ruud hits out at players relying on practice matches ahead of French Open

Casper Ruud sealed the Geneva Open title on Saturday defeating Tomas Machac 7-5, 6-3 for his 12th career title. He heads into Roland Garros as one of the favourites albeit playing down his potential chances of making a run at this year's French Open.

Ruud also played down the attention surrounding Novak Djokovic's slump and said he still considers him as a favourite even in a down year for the 24-time Grand Slam champion thus far.

"I would love to, and I would love to think that way, but I'm not really expecting that this year is the year I'm going to win it. It's so open these days and of course to me, even though Novak has had maybe a tougher year than usual, I would still consider him the favourite. He's arriving there with 24 Grand Slams in the bag," said Ruud post final.

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"The goal, like any other Slam, is to reach the second week and from there, typically I've seen that things open up a little bit. Maybe you play someone who's tired. If you're physically ready for the second week of a Slam, a lot of good things might happen."

But he also slammed those who have simply headed to Paris to play practice sets saying he is doing the same thing but is getting actual real matches in. He said that he fulfilled his mission as a result in gaining match practice. "I wanted to build up some momentum for Paris and I think I've been able to do that and hopefully I can bring it on to Paris," Ruud added.

"Physically it's good preparation, and you look at all the other players in Paris, what do they do in training? They play matches. So why don't you come here and play a real match instead of just practice matches?

"It’s been a great week in terms of winning and also building up the form and the physical aspects for Paris."

Oleg S.

@AnnaK_4ever

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