Ruud grateful for Geneva Open grind ahead of French Open

Tennis world number seven Casper Ruud believes his physically taxing victory at the Geneva Open on Saturday could work in his favour as he prepares for his French Open campaign with a first-round match against Brazilian Felipe Alves on Monday.

Ruud played both the semifinal and final of the Geneva Open on Saturday after rain affected play on Friday, beating Flavio Cobolli 1-6 6-1 7-6(4) in a tough encounter before returning to the court hours later to defeat Tomas Machac 7-5 6-3 in the final.

“I’ve played four good matches, four quite tough matches so I think physically it’s a good kind of preparation,” two-time French Open finalist Ruud told reporters.

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“All the other players in Paris, what do they do in training? They play matches. So why don’t you just come here and play a real match instead of practice matches. That’s my theory, and today I got to play more than three hours on the court.

“That is something you have to prepare for when you’re playing best-of-five sets. It’s not easy to get three hours in a row in the Slams to practice so it’s been a great week in terms of the win and also building up the form and physicality for Paris.”

Ruud will hope it is third-time lucky at Roland Garros after losing the last two finals to Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, but the Norwegian said he was not looking too far into the future.

“The goal, like any other Slam, is to reach the second week and from there typically I’ve seen that things open up a little bit,” Ruud said.

“Maybe you play someone who’s a bit tired. If you’re physically ready for the second week of a Slam, I think a lot of good things might happen.”