"Baffled" US Open star hits out at tennis fans and their "insane" opinions
Tennis star Casper Ruud issued a brutal assessment of fans who share their opinions online.
The Norwegian is competing at the 2023 US Open and is aiming to go one better than his runner-up appearance last year. While he is very much focused on his tennis, the 24-year-old took some time to comment on fans who share their views of the game on social media.
The fifth seed is left baffled by some opinions he has seen and encouraged fans to not believe everything posted about the game on game on various social platforms. “I read a bunch of these so-called tennis experts and their opinions," Ruud said. "It’s just insane. It annoys me in a way because I feel like if you haven’t played professionally in the past, most of them have no clue what they’re talking about.
“For fans, if anyone listens to what I’m saying, I’d just not take more than 5 per cent of what so-called tennis experts on Twitter say as good info because it’s just not the way it goes. I could probably reply to many things, but I just leave it. It’s interesting to see how people exaggerate all the time on social media about anything.
"You go from being the best player in the world to being the worst player in history from one week to another. It shouldn’t be taken seriously. Sometimes I like to interact because sometimes I feel like my opinion could matter. I have to be really annoyed to actually take the time to reply to someone.
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"It’s a wicked place to spend too much time. Reading about yourself is not really nice. I take it with a smile but sometimes I guess I can’t control myself. It’s easy to communicate with fans or haters. It’s worth it sometimes. But it can be dangerous to spend too much time there.”
Perhaps Ruud’s point of view is illustrated in a US tennis survey conducted by Research Without Barriers earlier this month. It concluded that 71 per cent of amateurs believe they could win a game against a professional player, which former player and 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick found astonishing.
Ruud came through his first-round match at the US Open to record his 200th tour-level victory (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)"This is insane! If I had as much self-confidence in my tennis game, as these people who were surveyed, I would've won Wimbledon 17 times. Minimum! This is absolutely insane. There is no chance," Roddick said on Tennis Channel. "Well, I stink right now, so I don't know, we could double fault, so maybe? But a game? We went from a game, which last time I checked is four points in pretty close proximity, to a single point. That's not the same conversation."
Ruud came through a tough opening-round match to defeat qualifier Emilio Nava 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) on Court 17 at Flushing Meadows. The result marked Ruud’s 200th tour-level victory and he will play China’s Zhang Zhizhen in the next round.
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