Carlos Alcaraz makes 23-year-old top ten player feel old

James Richardson
May 19, 2022

The meteoric rise of Carlos Alcaraz appears to have put the entire ATP Tour on notice with Casper Ruud admitting to being made to feel old by the Spanish teenager.

Ruud has been tipped as a future Grand Slam winner but says that the emergence of young talents have put him under pressure to prove himself.

Speaking on his Eurosport podcast, Ruud revealed that he’s starting to feel pressure to deliver big performances in Grand Slams.

He revealed that the rise of youngsters like Carlos Alcaraz and 20-year-old Italian prodigy Lorenzo Musetti have added to his sense of time ticking away.

“Obviously, I’m putting it as a very high goal and big expectations for this year, so of course I hope I can deliver.

“It is probably been my main goal this year to do good results there, because it is the Grand Slam where I feel, for now at least, where I have better chances to do well.

“It is important for me I think, before I am getting old in this circuit.

“I cannot say that yet because I’m only 23, but when you see players like Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti and all these guys, I start to feel a little bit old. I think it’s important for me to have a good Grand Slam result this year to know that, for the future years, I can be able to do the same or even better result”, he said.

Ruud believes he missed out on a chance to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year.

“Roland-Garros has been in my mind for some weeks already because it’s a tournament where I feel like last year I was a bit unfortunate and was maybe the biggest disappointment, in a way, of my year.

“Not saying third round is a bad result but it was a very close, and rollercoaster match, against (Alejandro) Davidovich (Fokina) in the third round. The draw had opened a little bit because Dominic (Thiem), he lost. If you look on paper, I suppose I was supposed to play him in the fourth round. But Davidovich made quarter-finals which was maybe one of my bigger goals of the year”, he said.

Carlos Alcaraz Casper Ruud