Ruud: Battered body just a part of tennis

Casper Ruud said on Saturday that playing in pain is all a part of tennis life at the top of the sport as the two-time finalist prepares for his start at Roland Garros.

The seventh-ranked Norwegian who lost Paris finals in 2022 and 2023 to Rafael Nadal/Novak Djokovic calculated that he has taken to the court with one physical niggle of another for at least 50 per cent of his matches.

“I definitely I would say more than half of my matches that I play there is something going on, whether that’s just a small blister under your foot or maybe a little soreness in stomach, rib, back, knee, whatever. 

“I’ve been through my whole body. Every part of my body has felt some kind of pain already in my career.”

The Norwegian took the opportunity to voice his support for a slightly shorter ATP season – especially given this year’s land-grab move of extending most of the Masters 1000 tournament to nearly a fortnight apiece from the former seven days.

“Sometimes you get, like, really tired of it (the pain). That’s why players have been asking a little more lately about having a little longer offseason for the

body to just kind of really calm down and settle and get rid of all the inflammations here and there.

“If you do well and you finish the year at the year-end Finals, you pretty much only have five to six, seven weeks before you’re obligated to show up in Australia again.”

Ruud added: “Sometimes that’s not enough. It’s really part of the job to manage, but when you grow up thinking I want to be a professional player, you don’t realize how much pain you’ll have in your career.

“It comes to a point where you just feel like you have had enough, I guess.”

The top Scandinavian begins his French Open campaign against Spain’s Albert Raoms-Vinolas.

Ruud and his team have been closely monitoring his food intake after last year’s Paris edition, where he fell ill in a semi-final loss to Alexander Zverev.

“I got some parasite from either water or something I ate. It was in my body for two to four weeks. It was I guess, Day 1 where I really felt bad (in) that match.

“I’m trying not to eat any risky stuff this week but it’s tough. In some other sports you kind of envy because whether you’re injured, sick, you can let your teammates play for you and sit out a match.

“But in tennis it doesn’t work like that. It would be nice if that (illness) could happen any other day than that last year.”