Casper Ruud voted the ATP Tour’s best sport

James Richardson 16 Dec 2022 5:49 PM

Casper Ruud celebrating

Casper Ruud has claimed the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award in the 2022 ATP Awards which was voted on by tour professionals.

The brief for the voting of the award is to select the player who best exemplifies fair play, professionalism and integrity on and off the court.

Ruud claims his first ATP award after a season where he reached a career-high ranking of World No 2 and played in two Grand Slam finals.

“A big thanks to everyone who voted for me for this year’s ATP Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award,” said Ruud.

“I feel very, very honoured and happy to win this prize this year. I will try to keep my mood in the right place for next year. Can’t wait to be back on court.”

Ruud becomes the first Scandinavian to win the award since it was renamed in honour of five-time winner Edberg.

The 23-year-old has already surpassed his own father Christian to become the most successful Norwegian player of the Open era.

His Stefan Edberg award victory breaks a long sequence of the honour being handed to either Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.

Between 2004 and 2021, Nadal and Federer split the 18 Stefan Edberg awards with the Swiss taking 13 home and the Spanish hero five.

Ruud returns to the court at an exhibition tournament in the UAE this weekend.

He will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

It is the first time that Ruud has visited the Emirati city of Abu Dhabi

“I’m really looking forward to visiting Abu Dhabi for the first time to contest the Mubadala World Tennis Championship,” Ruud said of playing in the event.

“It’s been a tournament on my radar for some time and I know that the level of tennis is going to be of the highest quality. I’m excited to be involved and play in front of my fans over there in the UAE.”

Ruud was the second player to be confirmed for the six-man tournament at Zayed Sports City’s International Tennis Centre in Abu Dhabi after World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz.

Tsitsipad won the right to face Ruud after downing British No 1 Cameron Norrie in his opening match in the UAE.

World No 8 Andrey Rublev beat the ATP Tour’s comeback player of the year Borna Coric to set up a semi-final date with Alcaraz.

The three-day tournament concludes on Sunday and will be followed by a similar event in Dubai next week.