Casper Ruud believes he has a big advantage in two upcoming ATP tournaments which could help him climb the rankings

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Casper Ruud is looking ahead to defending his title at the upcoming ATP tournament in Barcelona.

Ruud is a two-time Roland Garros finalist, having finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

However, the Norwegian did not make the best start to his 2025 clay court season, with Ruud losing in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters to Alexei Popyrin.

Ruud did predict Alcaraz to win Monte Carlo though, as he now looks ahead to the upcoming tournaments on his favorite surface.

Casper Ruud believes he has a big advantage in two upcoming ATP tournaments

Ruud’s next tournament is the Barcelona Open, where he won the biggest title of his career to date last year after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the 2024 final.

This means that Ruud, who has already dropped 550 points from reaching the Monte Carlo Masters final last year, has to defend a further 500 points in Barcelona.

However, when speaking in his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the Barcelona Open, Ruud pointed out that he actually has the chance to gain points during clay court tournaments in Madrid and Rome.

“Most of my points come from clay court tournaments,” said Ruud. “I have some other results on hard courts, but honestly, last fall was quite disappointing for me. I didn’t win many matches at all.

“Fortunately, I somehow salvaged a few wins for Turin [ATP Finals] and made it to the semi-finals there, so I still have something to fall back on. This week, obviously, I’m the defending champion, but in Madrid and Rome, I have almost no points to defend, so that really helps me relax a little.”

Ruud won only two of his four matches in Madrid and Rome last year, meaning that he only has 110 points to defend across those two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments.

How many ranking points does Casper Ruud have to defend on clay this year?

Despite appearing to feel positive about his ranking points total, Ruud still has a lot of pressure during this part of the season.

Ruud has endured a mixed start to the year so far, having won only 11 of his 18 matches and currently sits at 28th in the race to the ATP Finals.

The current world number 10 has 2,490 points to defend until the end of the 2025 season, with 67% of those from clay court tournaments.

Although he has 800 points from reaching the semi-finals of the clay court major last year, Ruud has been predicted to win Roland Garros by a former world number 11.

Before he can even think about Roland Garros, Ruud will first turn his attention towards defending the Barcelona Open title.

Ruud begins his campaign against Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan, who he has beaten in both of their two previous meetings.