Casper Ruud had an incredible chance to become the top-ranked player on the ATP Rankings when he was ranked number 2 in the world. The Norwegian missed his shot back in 2022, but he maintained his consistency for a while to hang in the top 10. But his recent experiences, results, and style of play have helped him develop a new sense of interpreting the rankings. As the three-time Grand Slam runner-up had a free-fall in rankings in 2026, his assumptions only further strengthened as he made a bold claim in Rome.

Despite the drop in rankings, Ruud has been very bullish about his form, so much so that he felt he was playing at a higher level than when he was the World No. 2.

“I’m standing here today with the ranking that I have, which is worse than what I have been … [but] ranking doesn’t always kind of reflect on how you feel on court. That’s OK. I’m also realistic, realizing I lost a few matches that maybe I shouldn’t have lost and didn’t want to lose this year, where maybe I didn’t do the years where I was Top 10, Top 5 in the world,” Ruud said.

The bulk of the Norwegian’s rankings slump came at the Madrid Open, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals. He approximately lost 800 of the 1,000 ranking points he was defending as the previous year’s champion, and it dropped his ranking into the 20s. His loss came at the hands of Alexander Blockx, someone he was expected to win against. However, the Italian Open and the next big event around the corner could help him recover those points.

Historically, the form vs ranking debate has always existed in tennis. Iga Swiatek, Andrey Rublev, and Grigor Dimitrov have always spoken that rank is just a number and form is what matters on the court.

Even though Ruud has reached the French Open final twice and finished in the semifinals back in 2024, he was frank that someone else is the massive favorite for the event in Paris, which is only a few weeks away.

Casper Ruud Remains Caustiously Optimistic About His Chances at Roland Garros Despite Having a Great Run in Rome

Casper Ruud was quite candid in admitting that Jannik Sinner was the massive favorite for the title, as the tennis world waits for the French Open to begin on May 24. Given that the Italian last lost a Tour-level match in February and has since then won 27 matches in a row, the Norwegian player’s arguments hold merit.

In his interview after his fourth-round win over Lorenzo Musetti in Rome, Ruud was honest about his chances and praised Sinner’s streak, even going on to remind everyone that the Italian was one point away from winning a clay-court Major last year.

“I think going into Roland Garros this year. I think you have the kind of outright favorite, obviously being Sinner now that he has kind of not cracked the code on clay, but won a few big clay court titles back-to-back, and he’s a threat no matter the surface. And last year, you could argue that he should have won. You know he was one point away,” said Ruud

However, despite being polite to his competition, Ruud was not shy away from stating his strong chances on the Parisian clay as well. He claimed he was not far behind the top group, which included Sinner and Alexander Zverev.

“I would say, like I was going to come to it to say, maybe Sasha is also the next kind of after Jannik that has had great, great results on clay. But I definitely consider myself not too far behind him, and based on the previous 3 or 4 years in Roland Garros, not many players have won more matches there than myself,” Ruud added

Ruud backs his claim with an enviable Paris record. He has an enviable record in Paris, barring a second-round blip last year. Overall, the Norwegian has won 24 of the 32 matches at the competition and has led the Tour in terms of clay-court wins since 2020.

He has been in tremendous form in Rome, winning against Karen Khachanov and reaching the semifinals for a fourth time in the Eternal City. He prepares for the challenge of Luciano Darderi in the last four, and if he goes through, a potential meeting with Sinner is in the cards.