Casper Ruud s'est qualifié ce samedi pour les huitièmes de finale de ce Roland-Garros 2023. Le numéro 4 mondial a battu le Chinois Zhizhen Zhang en 2h38, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4. Même s'il n'arrive pas à Paris avec des énormes certitudes après une saison très moyenne, le Norvégien avance doucement, mais sûrement dans un tableau où il n'a pas encore eu à affronter des joueurs très dangereux. Il s'est exprimé en conférence de presse sur son début de tournoi, mais aussi sur son nouveau statut après sa finale de 2022 perdue contre Rafael Nadal.
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00:00 It is often said that tennis is an individual sport,
00:04 but it is never more beautiful than when it is collective.
00:09 BNP Paribas, faithful to tomorrow's tennis for 50 years.
00:15 This time last year, I said that you reminded me of Kasper the Ghost,
00:19 because you almost ghosted into the second week without a lot of people noticing.
00:25 Are you still haunted by what happened in the final?
00:29 And how spooked out should the rest of the field be that you're playing scarily good right now?
00:35 Nice wordplay there.
00:43 I'm not really haunted by what happened last year in the final, honestly.
00:47 Like I said, I think last year I'm not the first victim to lose to Rafa in the final.
00:55 Of course I wish I could have done a little better and so on, but it was my first one.
01:00 Physically I was maybe a bit tired, taking into account that I had made semis in Rome
01:07 and then won Geneva and coming straight here.
01:10 So it was a lot of matches for me and I'm not blaming my physical aspects for the loss or anything.
01:17 But it was tough to play the toughest player you can play on clay in the first final.
01:22 So I'm not really haunted by it.
01:24 But I think I have some more eyes on me this year than last year.
01:29 But it's been sort of quiet so far.
01:33 I've been able to do my job and play my matches and get on in the tournament.
01:39 So I'm very happy.
01:40 Moving closer to the second week, that's where you really need to step up your game
01:46 and play your A game if you want to do well and continue winning.
01:49 Because now there are a lot of great players left.
01:51 I think that's what I learned from last year.
01:54 The real challenge, not tournament, but the real fun starts now.
02:01 If you want to be a part of it, you need to play your A game.
02:05 How could you describe your philosophical feeling about clay?
02:09 We know Rapha had some rituals, some habits on the court.
02:15 He cleans the line, something like that.
02:18 Do you have any rituals when you enter the court, between the points, after the points?
02:26 Not really. I just do the same routine when I bounce the ball, whether it's hard court or clay.
02:34 I enjoy the fact that I have clay under my shoes, to put it this way.
02:39 I think hard court is pretty rough for joints and the body to play on and run on and stop.
02:46 While clay you can slide a little bit more.
02:49 I think it's physically a bit tougher in ways that the points will most likely be longer than on hard court.
02:59 I think you've seen this this year with a couple of matches going over five hours long.
03:04 It's because it's more playable and the ball is a little slower here than on hard court.
03:09 But on hard court it's really tough because your body will be torn down.
03:15 It's pretty rough to your joints, knees, ankles, hips and all these things.
03:20 I just like the fact that I can slide on the surface, on the clay.
03:26 I think it's one of the most historic surfaces to me.
03:30 It's nice, between the sets you see the court getting watered.
03:34 It's a lot of things that are different on clay than maybe on hard court.
03:38 I don't have any more rituals than this.
03:43 Sometimes I also clean the lines, but it's not like I have to do that every single time before I play.
03:49 Some things are different on clay than on hard court.
03:56 On your first week, I wanted to ask you how happy are you with your level at the moment?
04:01 You struggled a bit with confidence at the start of the year, especially when compared to last season.
04:06 Just a quick one on the possibility of facing Jari maybe ten days or something later in different conditions.
04:14 Obviously with no altitude, but just a word on that.
04:17 The level is getting better.
04:19 I still don't feel like I'm playing error-free in a way.
04:27 I still feel like there are things I can improve and I can make less errors than I have done in some moments in my matches.
04:34 I still feel like there's a level that I haven't played yet that I can bring out and I will need to bring out going into the second week for sure.
04:42 I'm very happy with being through the first three matches.
04:46 It's tough. For me this year it's been much more pressure playing this year compared to last year.
04:52 Last year, as you said a little bit earlier, I could just do my work in the shadow.
04:58 This year it's a little more eyes on me.
05:02 I'm having to defend the final and so on, so I felt the pressure a bit different this year.
05:06 But I'm through to the second week and the fourth round and I'm going to try to let a little bit more loose
05:12 and feel like I've won some good matches so far.
05:14 I'm going to try to build on it.
05:16 If I play Jarry it's going to be another tough match.
05:18 He was close and tough in Geneva.
05:20 I felt like it could have gone either way. It went his way.
05:23 I'm going to hope that the altitude being less here and sea level here is going to help slow the ball down a little bit.
05:33 But he's playing great. He's won three great matches.
05:36 I'm going to prepare for a very tough match.