"Worst clay court I played on all year.." slates Casper Ruud about Hamburg Open court

Casper Ruud criticized the clay courts at the Hamburg European Open after his victory against Sebastián Baez.

The Norwegian tennis player is one of the main exponents on clay courts. Since 2020, Ruud has achieved 10 titles, all of them in ATP 250 tournaments, and nine of these victories have been on clay.

He has also reached five finals on the same surface, two of them at Roland Garros, where he lost in 2022 to Rafael Nadal and in 2023 to Novak Djokovic.

Casper Ruud had a difficult start to the tournament against the Argentine Sebastián Baez, whom he defeated in three sets to advance to the second round. According to the journalist Jose Morgado, the 24-year-old athlete seemed to be upset with the condition of the courts at the Hamburg Open.

“After the first three games, Casper Ruud tells the umpire that this Hamburg court is ‘the worst clay court he played all year on tour’.”

In his second-round match, once again Ruud had difficulties in securing the victory, this time against the world No. 120 Christian Garin. The Chilean had a dominant start and broke Ruud three times to take the first set 6-1, but the world No. 4 managed to turn the match around and ended up with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win. After the victory, Ruud commented:

“The last two matches against both Garin and Baez has been tough challenging because they move really well, both of them cover the court great and the play specially from the backhand site quite, like flat, low to my backhand croos court hich can be a little bit troubling for me sometimes.”

With his victory, the tournament's top seed will now face 19-year-old Arthur Fils, who advanced to the quarter-finals with wins over Daniel Elahi Galan and Dusan Lajovic. Fils and Ruud have never faced each other in their careers and will have their first encounter on Friday in the closing match on the center court.