Casper Ruud lamented a stomach ailment that he felt was “limiting” his effectiveness in his defeat to Alexander Zverev at Roland-Garros.
The pair played out their semi-final in the French Open on Friday, and Ruud started well as he claimed the first set 6-2.
However, the German came back to win three consecutive sets to take the victory, and set up a final this Sunday against Carlos Alcaraz.
Speaking after his defeat, Ruud said that the problems set in even before the end of the first set.
“It was a little bit unfortunate. I started well. Towards the middle, end of the first set, I started feeling some discomfort, an ache in my stomach. So I wasn’t able to keep the intensity and the energy level up. It was something that was bothering me, just kind of limiting me,” he explained.
“It was a pity. It’s not something I think is very serious or going to last for a long time, but something that came up in the first set.”
He added: “I don’t have the answers now, but I just [am] disappointed that it had to be today. Why couldn’t it be yesterday or day before when I had three days off?” Ruud wondered. “So it was a bit unlucky. I was really looking forward to the match. In a way I started well, but yeah, I wasn’t able to keep it up, unfortunately.”
Despite the setback at the midway point of the season, Ruud remains content with how the 2024 campaign is shaping up.
He continued: “I’m very pleased with how the season has been so far. In my game I’ve tried to make a few adjustments and improvements, and I think that they’ve come along pretty well.
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“Still, there’s a long way to go where I feel like I’m 100% satisfied, and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t feel like I’m complete yet as a player, very far from it. So I still have a lot of things to work on.
“But the season has been great, I would say, to sum it up. This result here in Paris is, in my eyes, a great result, and it was unfortunate and a pity today that it ended this way. But I consider it, let’s say, the first half of the year very good, and I’m looking forward to having some time off.”
You can watch every day of the 2024 French Open live and on-demand on discovery+.
