Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz poke fun at Casper Ruud after ‘well-deserved’ award – ‘No way’
The budding bromance between Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud has been one of the stories on the ATP in recent years and the former had no problems making light of the Norwegian’s sportsmanship award.
Ruud received his first major ATP award last week as he was rewarded with the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, which is voted for by the ATP players.
The award “goes to the player who, throughout the year, conducted himself at the highest level of professionalism and integrity, who competed with his fellow players with the utmost spirit of fairness and who promoted the game through his off-court activities”.
The world No 3, who finished runner-up to Nadal at the French Open and to Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, certainly has an exemplary record when it comes to professionalism and integrity.
But by winning the award, Ruud broke Nadal and Roger Federer’s monopoly as “Fedal” have dominated the gong since 2004 with the Swiss winning it 13 times and Nadal five times.
Nadal took to Instagram to not only congratulate the 23-year-old Ruud, but also joke about how surprised he was about the Norwegian receiving the award.
“No way!!! They don’t know you!!! Many congrats, you deserve it 100%! Super happy for you!” he wrote on the ATP Tour’s post to confirm Ruud as the winner.
Nadal and Ruud go back a long way as the Norwegian has made no secret of the fact that the 22-time Grand Slam winner is his tennis idol and he also trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca during his younger days.
But they have become great friends and Ruud accompanied Nadal on his Latin American exhibition tour after the 2022 tennis season as they played five matches in five different cities.
Nadal, though, was not the only one to congratulate Ruud as Fritz felt he deserved it as he “gives points away for free”.
“Definitely deserved @casperruud 🙏🏻guy gives points away for free 😂” the American commented.
The world No 9 was most likely referring to the US Open final when Ruud conceded a point to Alcaraz in the first set after the umpire failed to call the double bounce.
“It’s his point, yeah,” he told the umpire.
The match official then told the crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ruud has just confirmed that a ball bounced twice. The point goes to Alcaraz.”
READ MORE: Casper Ruud: Biography, Lifestyle, Lovelife, Net Worth, Career, Endorsements
