"It'll be nice to get back to playing" - #NextGenATP Star Ruusuvuori looks forward to Grand Slam debut at US Open
Tennis News
Finnish star and World No.101 Emil Ruusuvuori is one of the ATP Tour's hottest young prospects. The 21-year old is eager to make his breakthrough on Tour after having the best year of his career in 2019.
The Finn was ranked World No.410 last June but won four ATP Challenger trophies to rise to the cusp of the Top 100.
“It all went pretty fast in the end. It wasn’t the easiest year from the start,” said Ruusuvuori, who struggled with some health issues at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. “I learned all the things you have to do at that level… I started winning some matches and then I got the first tournament win and then another one. In the end, it rolled quite well. It was a lot of work to get there, but it was a great, great year overall.”
Ruusuvuori grew up watching Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and spent his off-season at the Rafael Nadal Academy. He even got to train with Nadal once in Mallorca.
“It’s something really different, the way he hits the ball and how he keeps the practice so intense. It’s something I’d never experienced and it’s one of the best memories I have on the tennis court,” Ruusuvuori said.
He won his first ATP match in Montpellier this year, and was gaining momentum before the Tour was cancelled due to COVID-19. With the season set to resume, Ruusuvuori is hoping to show the world what he can do. He is scheduled to compete at the US Open, and the Finn seems excited to make his Grand Slam debut.
“I’m just excited to get back to official matches,” Ruusuvuori said. “We’ve practiced a lot now, so it’ll be nice to get back to playing.”
Furthermore, he has no doubt about what he wants to achieve on the tennis court.
“A Grand Slam win,” Ruusuvuori said. “That’s a pretty easy question.”
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Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
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