Casper Ruud, Alexander Bublik and Benoit Paire were all part of the UTS Grand Finals 2023, London. While ‘ICEMAN’ Ruud advanced to the Semi-Finals of the tournament, Bublik aka ‘THE BUBLIK ENEMY’, and Benoit aka ‘THE REBEL’ didn’t make it past the Round Robin. Ruud also couldn’t beat the competition as Jack Draper defeated him in straight sets.
The trio sat down for dinner following the competition to discuss various issues from all walks of life. Their conversation was posted as an episode of the show All on the Table by UTS Tour’s YouTube channel.
Casper Ruud struggled to get his footing last season, he couldn’t keep up with his rivals. The only silver lining to his last season was the French Open Finals where he lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets. He had a significant drop-off in the ATP rankings as well. He fell from World No. 2 in 2022 to being ranked outside of top 10 in 2023.
Alexander Bublik didn’t hesitate to bring this topic up to poke his Norwegian peer. The 25-year-old Norwegian was once just some points away from clinching the #1 Ranking.
However, he couldn’t pull off the feat as he lost the US Open to Carlos Alcaraz in the finals. Bublik also pointed out that Ruud was on fire that season and he had collected 11 ATP 250 titles to make it to rank 2 but that was corrected by Ruud informing that it was 5 titles, not 11. He also corrected that it was in 2021 and not in 2022. Here’s an excerpt from that conversation :
Bublik: “He was close to being the Number 1”. “You were one match away from being #1, no?”
Ruud: “Yeah. Last year at the US Open.”
Bublik : “That year you won how many, 11 [ATP] 250s?”
Ruud: “No that was not that year, that was 2021. 5, it was 5”
Casper Ruud looks to bounce back and attain his previous peak form in 2024. He starts his campaign in the United Cup 2024, where he will represent Norway as the highest-ranked player.
Casper Ruud still traumatized over the Holger Rune’s social media fiasco
Casper Ruud responded to a tweet but couldn’t believe its legitimacy and mentioned his concern. Fans were quick to pin point the Rune incident from last year being a reason for it.
The Norwegian replied to a tweet from a parody account ‘DisbussingFilm’ concerning Christopher Nolan directing “The Dark Knight Returns” and Christian Bale being cast again for the role of Batman.
Casper replied to the fake news quoting :
“Is this true? I don’t believe anything I read anymore but please be true.”
Is this true?😱🤯 I don’t believe anything I read anymore but please be true🙏 https://t.co/8AB3urn2Sy
— Casper Ruud (@CasperRuud98) December 24, 2023
The tennis world was quick to tease the Norwegian of falling for another fake news incident. One of them recounted the social media incident with Holger Rune last year to be responsible for Casper’s actions.
