Casper Ruud continued to prove his inability to emerge at the high-pressure moments on Sunday, as he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas with minimal fuss.
Facing the two-time Monte-Carlo champion in the final, there was a real feeling like this was anyone’s match for the taking against two players who notoriously both enjoy clay courts.
However, as pundit Catherine Whitaker would go on to note, Ruud simply didn’t show up.
In fact, she found the entire performance from the world number six completely mystifying…
Catherine Whitaker left stunned by Casper Ruud’s Monte-Carlo performance
Speaking on her The Tennis Podcast, the sports broadcaster, who has enjoyed spells with Prime Video, BBC and Eurosport, was rather cutting in her assessment of Ruud’s performance in the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
Although, her criticism is rather justified, with the 25-year-old really failing to trouble Tsitsipas at all.
In fact, the Greek player, who has now won this tournament on three occasions, rarely had to struggle as he cruised to the title.
Whitaker has since suggested that Ruud put in a ‘weird’ performance, and questioned his winning mentality when reaching these latter stages.
She noted: ‘It was weird. I did find everything about him yesterday really odd. Like, he was a bit chippy. I found it weird. I found that a weird performance.
‘He has played three Grand Slam finals, this was a long way from the biggest match of his life. It’s a big deal, don’t get me wrong, and a particularly big deal given how relatively poor his results have been recently, couldn’t even win Estoril.’
Casper Ruud barely laid a glove on Stefanos Tsitsipas
As one of the nicest guys in tennis, Ruud is one of those players who is universally liked, and thus most people want him to succeed.
However, when he fails to show up on the big stages, as he did on Sunday, he makes it so hard.
Tsitsipas raced into a one-set lead, crushing the Norwegian by a scoreline of 6-1.
And whilst it was somewhat rescued in the second, he still really failed to capitalise on his moments to break as he was unable to convert one of his eight break points.
Meanwhile, his opponent made four from the eight he conjured.
That obviously proved to be the big difference, but the difference in percentage on their respective second serves likely made a huge difference too.
After all, Ruud won just 39% on his second serve, compared to Tsitsipas’ 70%.
These are the marginal gains that can tip a match in your favour, and in this case, the three-time Grand Slam finalist fell flat.
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