Do Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner have a scheduling advantage over their rivals? Casper Ruud’s verdict
Casper Ruud has revealed why he thinks the demands of the tennis schedule are harder to manage for other players than they are for Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
The schedule has been a hot topic in the sport in recent months, with Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Alexander Zverev among the big names to voice concerns about the length of the season and other calendar issues.
Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz both spoke out about injuries on the ATP Tour and called for change after Holger Rune suffered a serious Achilles injury in Stockholm.
Ruud claimed the title at the ATP 250 event in Stockholm as he dismantled Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-3 in the final on Sunday.
After his Stockholm Open victory, Ruud spoke about the length of the season.
“The schedule is very long, it’s incredibly complicated to go from one tournament to the next with hardly any time to process what’s happened,” the world No 11 was quoted as saying by Punto de Break.
“I think it’s harder for the others because we don’t win as many [matches] as they (Alcaraz and Sinner) do, and bouncing back from defeats every week is a challenge.”
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Ruud was also asked about the tennis schedule in a press conference in Stockholm.
“In my case this year, I had a longer break in the summer, which has kind of led to me having a little extra energy at this time of the year,” said the Norwegian.
“I think, when you look at Carlos [Alcaraz]’s year this year, it’s pretty unique and he’s played many matches and still seems like he has joy and continues to go. Of course, there are two tournaments left for him, but other than him, there’s not many that get to play 60, 70, 80 matches.
“So I think if you get to that level where you start looking at 50, 60, 70 plus matches a year, it gets quite demanding at the end. But yeah, expect for maybe him and Sinner, who really does well almost every single week, we all have our hiccups and our earlier losses where we get to go home and these things.
“But yeah, it really helped for me this year to have a longer break in the summer and kind of grow the hunger for the remaining [part] of the year.
“And I wasn’t able to maybe peak or play great as soon as I came back, but now I feel like I have more kind of motivation and inspiration in my game towards the end of the season.”
