It’s not unreasonable to surmise that a player good enough to reach three Grand Slam finals and peak as high as World No. 2 would have also tasted success at at least one ATP 500 or Masters 1000 event. Anything to the contrary would seem incongruous.
And yet that was the situation Casper Ruud found himself in until last week. A former junior World No. 1, the Norwegian was long regarded as one of men’s tennis’ hottest young prospects — but his lack of titles in the tour’s bigger tournaments meant that questions were beginning to be asked about whether Ruud was truly a ‘top top’ player.
