Us Open, Wilander crowns Ruud: “Everything he touched turned to gold.”

Mats Wilander praises Ruud

In the Eurosport studios Mats Wilander analyzed Ruud’s victory over Berrettini: “Casper raised his level of tennis, especially in the first set and a half: everything he touched turned to gold and then it was a completely different kind of match and he remained the better player. It was an incredible performance by Casper.

Casper had all the answers. For a set and a half it seemed like he could do no wrong. He chose the right position in response, he often chose the right response to get the exchange going. Today, when the ball was in play, Casper Ruud’s forehand was better than Berrettini’s – a lot depended on movement, he was able to move Matteo from left to right. An incredibly strong effort on Casper’s part. He’s showing a level of tennis on this surface that I wasn’t sure existed in his game, but he’s playing incredibly well.

It must be really unbelievable to play a quarterfinal, to play so well, and then for things to go a little bit wrong and then you have your father sitting up there, who obviously was in the top 30 in the world in singles, an incredibly good player, and now the confidence is there, the tennis knowledge as well. You can’t ignore that nobody knows Casper better than his mother or his father.”