Norwegian tennis player Casper Ruud is a teenager on the rise. Ruud has become the one of the youngest players to win a Challenger tournament, the Seville Challenger on Sunday, and to help with his development in the game the Chengdu Open has given him a main draw wild card.
He is the son of former player Christian Ruud who reached a career high ranking of 39 in the world. The younger Ruud has been part of the Norwegian Davis Cup team since 2015 and has worked his way out of junior tennis where he had been ranked No.1 in the world.
“We had been watching some of Casper’s results this year when his name was brought to our attention and given his recent Challenger it was an easy decision to give him the coveted wild card,” said Tournament Director Nick Freyer of IMG. “At the start of the year he was outside the top 1000 in the ATP rankings but his results have taken him to a career high ranking of 274 this week, which is outstanding by any measure, especially so given his young age.”
This past week-end while the finals at the US Open were happening, 17 year old Ruud had worked his way through the Seville Challenger and won it becoming the fourth youngest to win a Challenger title on debut, joining the likes of Michael Chang, Richard Gasquet and Jonathan Stark. Ruud is also the youngest winner on the Tour since German Alexander Zverev in 2014.
There is a nice similarity with his father from when he was making a breakthrough; it was 1993 and Christian Ruud won his first Challenger the weekend Pete Sampras won his first Wimbledon.
“You have to take it day by day and I’m just trying my best every day and working hard,” Casper Ruud said. “Anything can happen but I’m going to stay humble and just try to work every day.”
In Seville he upset Andrej Martin in the second round, his first win over a top 150 player, then accounted for top 100 player and top seed Inigo Cervantes in the quarters, he rallied to beat defending champion Pedro Cachin in the semis and then beat experienced Japanese player Taro Daniel in the final.
“The Chengdu Open is shaping up to be an exciting week. Many of our players have scored memorable moments at the recent US Open. Nick Kyrgios has become the first Australian in a decade to be ranked in the top 15, and after his great run and return to form, Grigor Dimitrov is back up to 22, while Pablo Carreno Busta is proud of reaching the men’s doubles final, his first at the majors, with his partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez,” Freyer said.
There will be free admission to qualifying round matches with tickets for the Chengdu Open main draw matches through to the finals available through www.damai.cn and www.piao.com.cn
The tournament is owned by IMG and is organized by the Chinese Tennis Association and Chengdu Municipal Government, is co-organized by Chengdu Sports Bureau, Shuangliu District Government and Chengdu Culture Tourism Group and is promoted by Sichuan Investment International Tennis Centre Development Co., Ltd., CCTV IMG (Beijing) Sports Management Co. Ltd. and IMG Sports Development (Shanghai) Limited.
The tournament is proud to have the distinguished support from ATP World Tour’s Premier Partner Emirates, St. Regis Chengdu, Erke, Sichuan Tennis International Hotel, Yonex, Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur, Srixon, West China Metropolis, Chengdu Radio and TV Station, Shenzhen Hundred-Meter Life Shares Co., Ltd., Ice Age and Sichuan Mengding Tea Co.Ltd.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Contact Ms. Robecta Yeung, ph: +852-28940204 or +86-13760373443 or by email Robecta.Yeung@img.com.
About the 2016 Chengdu Open
Please visit: www.ChengduOpenTennis.com
About Chinese Tennis Association
Please visit: www.tennis.org.cn
About Chengdu City
Please visit: www.chengdu.gov.cn
About Chengdu Sports Bureau
Please visit: www.cdsport.gov.cn
About Shuangliu District
Please visit: www.shuangliu.gov.cn
About Chengdu Culture Tourism Group
Please visit: www.cdctg.com
About Sichuan Investment International Tennis Centre Development Co., Ltd.
Please visit: sichuantennisinternationalhotel.com
About CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company
Please visit: www.cctv-img.com
About IMG
Please visit: www.img.com
About the ATP World Tour
Please visit: www.atpworldtour.com
