Former world No 1 ‘shocked’ by Casper Ruud, Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune decision
Casper Ruud, Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune’s decision to sign up for ATP Tour events the week before the French Open has been questioned by four-time Grand Slam winner Jim Courier.
The world’s best players often skip the tournaments the week before a Grand Slam, but several high-profile names have entered this year’s Hamburg Open and the Geneva Open with both starting on May 18 and concluding on May 24 – just two days before Roland Garros gets underway.
Eight top-20 players have signed up for the ATP 500 event in Germany with world No 1 Jannik Sinner leading the way.
Musetti (No 9), Rune (No 10), Tommy Paul (No 12), Frances Tiafoe (No 16) Andrey Rublev (No 17), Francisco Cerundolo (No 18) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (No 19) are also in the main draw.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, world No 4 Taylor Fritz will headline the event with 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic (currently at No 6 in the ATP Rankings) also in the draw along with Ruud (No 7), Grigor Dimitrov (No 15) and Tomas Machac (No 20).
There are mitigating factors for Sinner and Djokovic’s entries as the former has played only one tournament on clay – the current Italian Open – as he was sidelined by his three-month suspension.
Djokovic, meanwhile, has played only two matches on the surface after losing early at the Monte Carlo Masters and Madrid Open.
Fritz, meanwhile, has played only four matches on the red dirt as he lost in the second round of the Italian Open.
Former world No 1 Courier understands the reasoning behind Sinner and Djokovic’s decisions to compete the week before the second Grand Slam of the year.
“There is a lot of insurance at play for someone like Sinner. For Djokovic he needs the matches as he hasn’t played and he is going to try and do what he did last year, which is maybe get two or three matches and then pull the cord and get to Paris with a little bit of match toughness,” he said on the Tennis Channel.
But he feels money could be the reason why some of the other top-20 players have opted to compete as Ruud and Rune have both won titles already on clay this year while Musetti finished runner-up at Monte Carlo.
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The American added: “But I’m really shocked, honestly, to see some of these names on here. Look, let’s set the table. These tournaments can pay appearance fees.
“So some of these players will have accepted a big guarantee, I’m talking hundreds and thousands of dollars just to show up to play and they don’t have to win a match to get that money, so there is some commercial aspect to this.
“But, the serious players who think they’re going to win Roland Garros or challenge for Roland Garros, they don’t play these tournaments, and one thing that is different this year, and this is the only time that I’ve seen this, there’s an ATP 500 tournament here, Hamburg, that’s been put into this section.
“That doesn’t happen before Wimbledon, doesn’t happen before Australia, doesn’t happen before the US Open.
“There are [ATP] 250 tournaments around [those events] and you just don’t see the top players playing.
“There is a new bonus pool for ATP 500 this year. Six players who play at least four of these ATP 500 tournaments will share $3m in extra money so there are substantial financial incentives to play for players that are in that conversation.
“So there is a lot that goes into this. [But] there’s no amount of appearance money or bonus pool money that can replicate the kind of money you make if you win Roland Garros.
“So be careful what you wish for if you’re going for the easy grab, you might miss out on a life-changing, generational wealth that sits at the end of these tournaments.”
