Casper Ruud is enjoying a fantastic run at the Italian Open, having just played his way into the quarterfinals.
Ruud is the 23rd seed at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament, where he has just beaten home favorite Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-1.
Despite his opponent’s top 10 ranking and support from the fans in Rome, the Norwegian stormed to victory after just one hour and 17 minutes.
Musetti was, however, struggling towards the end of the match against Ruud, who has just set up a quarterfinal clash with Karen Khachanov.
Ahead of that meeting at the Italian Open, he has suggested one change he would consider making to the tennis scoring system.
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Casper Ruud suggests what he would change to the tennis scoring system
When asked if there was anything he’d change in his post-match press conference, Ruud said: “If I would change anything?
“It’s a fun concept of no-ads.
“I think that’s quite a fun concept of playing a deciding point because the nerves really kick in.
“I really love the system as it is.
“There’s not much that needs to be changed in the scoring system, I think.”
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Casper Ruud references ATP Big Three after latest Italian Open win
Ruud discussed the scoring system in further detail after knocking out Musetti, which followed his wins over Zachary Svajda and Jiri Lehecka.
He said: “Talking about the scoring system, it’s great because it’s not limited to time. When I see other sports like football or soccer, basketball, ice hockey, that is based on time, when a team is too far ahead in the lead, they can kind of run the clock out.
“When you’re a tennis player, you don’t have that kind of possibility. You cannot just run the clock out. You need to go out there and win the match.
“Even though you’re leading or win the first set, you have to keep being aggressive. I think that’s the beauty of this sport, you can be so close but yet so far.
“If you look at only the scoring, for example last week in Madrid when I played Stefanos [Tsitsipas], the match was so tight and so close in all three sets.
“I walked off the court and I saw that I had won 15 more points than him. That’s as close as you can get. I was actually winning a lot, more points than him.
“Even if I had lost the match, I probably would end up still winning more points than him and still losing the match. It shows how small details and winning the important points, how important that can be.
“Many matches on the ATP Tour to me are decided by anywhere from two to five, six, crucial points in the match. If you win those, you can be on top. If not, it can be tough.
“I think if you see the overall stat with the Big Three – Roger [Federer], Rafa [Nadal], Novak [Djokovic] – they won combined 53, 54 points of all the points they ever played in their career. They were that dominant. That just goes to show how close it is.”
Djokovic is, of course, the last man standing of the iconic ATP Big Three, with Federer and Nadal both having retired.
| Year | Titles | Tournaments |
| 2025 | 2 | Stockholm (Indoor/Hard) ATP Masters 1000 Madrid (Outdoor/Clay) |
| 2024 | 2 | Geneva (Outdoor/Clay) Barcelona (Outdoor/Clay) |
| 2023 | 1 | Estoril (Outdoor/Clay) |
| 2022 | 3 | Gstaad (Outdoor/Clay) Geneva (Outdoor/Clay) Buenos Aires (Outdoor/Clay) |
| 2021 | 5 | San Diego (Outdoor/Hard) Kitzbuhel (Outdoor/Clay) Gstaad (Outdoor/Clay) Bastad (Outdoor/Clay) Geneva (Outdoor/Clay) |
| 2020 | 1 | Buenos Aires (Outdoor/Clay) |
But the Serbian veteran lost his opening match at the Italian Open, where Ruud is chasing his 15th career ATP title.
It would represent his first of the season, during which the world number 25 took a brief break to welcome a new baby daughter.
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