French Open star in furious rant at tennis chiefs after surprise humiliation
Casper Ruud was dumped out of the French Open by Portuguese minnow Nuno Borges on Wednesday, with the Norwegian's wait for a Grand Slam title set to continue on
World No.7 Casper Ruud launched a furious rant at ATP Tour chiefs after his surprise second round exit from the French Open. The Norwegian was eliminated by Portuguese minnow Nuno Borges, ranked 41st in the world, on Wednesday evening.
Ruud lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 and was in considerable discomfort in the third and fourth sets. The defeat means that the 26-year-old will drop out of the world's top 10 when the rankings update a week on Monday.
It continues an unlucky run in Paris for Ruud. Last year he reached the semi-finals, but his preparation was derailed by a stomach bug, leading to a defeat in four sets to Alexander Zverev.
This time around, it was a knee injury that led to his downfall at Roland-Garros. Ruud has been struggling with a knee issue he suffered at the start of the clay-court season in Monaco.
It means his wait for a Grand Slam title will go on, having twice finished as a runner-up at the French Open. Following his exit this year, the Norwegian rounded on the ATP Tour for what he described as a system that forces players to enter tournaments despite being injured.
"It's been with me since the beginning of the clay-court season," Ruud said after his defeat. "As we know, it's a hectic clay season, and I decided to kind of push through it, doing some anti-inflammatory pills and painkillers to try to get rid of it, which has helped to a certain degree but not enough.
"We feel that we can lose a lot economically, in terms of ranking and opportunities if we don't show up to tournaments. It's a system that needs to be questioned. On the one hand, we don't want to show up injured when someone could have played in our place.
"On the other, they take away 25% of your end-of-year bonus if you don't come to the mandatory tournaments... You're kind of forcing players to participate while injured or sick, which isn't very fair.
'The scan didn't know show any structural damage, which is a good thing. There's liquid, inflammation in there that needs to settle. I will have some more time now to let it heal and rest for a long time.'
The Norwegian is not the first to question the ATP. In late March, around twenty tennis players and a professional union filed a series of lawsuits targeting the ATP and the WTA, accusing them of promoting a "corrupt, illegal, and abusive system."
According to the executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), co-founded by Novak Djokovic, "players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their income, and endangers their health and safety".
The ATP 'strongly reject the premise of the PTPA's claims' and have insisted their case is 'entirely without merit'. Ruud will now focus on the build-up to Wimbledon while Borges faces Alexei Popyrin in the third round in Paris.
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