Casper Ruud, 23, insists it’s not a shame for him, but it’s urgent to find his form now.

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In two weeks the French Open will start. Big goals for Casper Ruud this season. But the drive-up could be so much better. Last week, he was knocked out of the Madrid Open in the second round against 77th seed Dusan Lajovic.

The 23-year-old dropped two places, to number nine, in the world rankings.

– There is a small margin. Last year, everything went my way. I keep the match balls here and there. I managed to win the match. After Miami, it’s a bit of the opposite. I just have to accept that. It happens in all sports. “Especially in football, there is a small margin,” Ruud told Eurosport.

He is in Rome ahead of the ATP Masters 1000 Italian Open which starts on Monday. This is the last pebble tournament before the French Open and most major tournaments participate. However, new favorite Carlos Alcaraz, who actually excelled in Sunday’s Madrid final against Alexander Zverev, has decided to step down.

Casper Ruud got a walkover in the first round, but tough opponents await in the next round: American Sebastian Korda (30 in the world rankings) or Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands (number 31). Ruud lost to the latter in the quarter-finals in Munich recently.

Ruud had to withdraw from the tournament earlier this year because problem with wisdom tooth.

He didn’t complain.

– There are many nice cities. Nice stadium. It’s not embarrassing for me. I had to readjust – and train again. “I have good memories of Roma and hope that great form shows up there,” Ruud told Eurosport.

ivind Sørvald is responsible for analysis at Team Ruud and expert for Eurosport. He summed up Ruud as follows after the last loss in Miami:

• A little stick out
• Minor adjustments
• Unnecessary errors should disappear
• No injury
• There is no crisis by any means

– There are many good players. There is a small margin in tennis. As far as I can see, Casper doesn’t have any major issues. There’s nothing big to deal with, Sørvald told VG.

Sørvald thinks Ruud has plenty of time to find form for the French Open. He hopes the 23-year-old from Snarøya will have plenty of matches at the Italian Open this week.

– What’s nice to see is that Casper is the type with a healthy attitude, regardless of whether he wins or loses. No whining. He’s a sportsman. It was important for him not to go to the dungeon, but to recover from training. It quickly becomes like “now it’s a shame for me”. But Casper continued to work hard. That’s the coolest thing about him, Sørvald said.