Casper Ruud used his short press conference to articulate, in unusually careful terms, a regret he was not quite willing to name out loud after his loss to João Fonseca 7-5 7-6(8) 5-7 6-2 in the Roland-Garros fourth round on Sunday.
The regret was the second-set tie-break. Asked what had separated the first three sets, which had been close, from the rest of the match, Ruud reached for a specific point. “There was one set point in the second – or a couple,” he said. “The forehand he hit, it was marginal, either in or out. It was called in, obviously. So if I win that set, maybe it can be two-one up instead of two-one down. Instead of love-two, you’re one-all. So that’s unfortunate, obviously, in my situation.”
What followed, on the rest of the match, was praise of Fonseca. “I was expecting a tough match, and it ended up being a tough one. He doesn’t have that many weaknesses in his game. He’s beaten a lot of top players already, including Novak two days ago. It’s utterly impressive the way he plays.”
Ruud : the “yes” meaning everything
Ruud, the two-time Roland-Garros finalist, is too experienced to spend a press conference disputing a forehand call. He named the moment, named the marginality, and moved on.
Asked whether this loss was harder than a regular defeat – given the draw, given that his name had come up as a potential winner of the tournament, given his clay-court record. Ruud’s answer was one word. “Yes.” Nothing else.
Ruud, a runner-up in Rome, had walked into Roland-Garros as the player whose name had been most often mentioned in the post-Sinner, post-Alcaraz, post-Djokovic open-draw conversation, with or behind Zverev. He was one win away from a victory in Paris in 2022 and 2023. He will be back in the Top 15 at the ATP rankings (No.14) with this result.
