In the cut-throat world of professional tennis, a 17-year-old photograph is a rare artifact of a friendship that has outlasted the rivalry on court. One such bond is shared by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud. The two have known each other for years and have battled it out on the court several times. But they do not hold any hard feelings towards one another regardless of the result. Ahead of their R16 clash at the Madrid Open, Tsitsipas revisited one of his most fond memories with Ruud in a heartfelt social media post.

Tsitsipas shared a photograph that included him, Ruud and two other players sharing a tennis court. He also revealed that the photograph was taken 17 years ago, showing how far both him and his Norwegian friend have come. The other two people in the photograph include former World No. 19 Alexei Popyrin and Christian Linge, who hasn’t competed in professional tennis since 2019.

Tsitsipas and Ruud are set to take on each other for the sixth time in a tour-level match. Both of them have looked to be in great touch at the Madrid Open so far. The Greek has racked up three consecutive wins after beginning his campaign from the R128. On the other hand, Ruud has begun his title defense by knocking out Spaniards Jaume Munar and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first two rounds respectively.

Ruud comes into the match with a 3-2 lead over Tsitsipas in the H2H record. Their last meeting had come in the final of the Barcelona Open where Ruud had clinched a 7-5, 6-3 victory. Prior to this, the two had also met in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters and it was Tsitsipas who had reigned supreme that time around.

This victory was monumental for the Greek as it saw him return to the top 10 on the rankings and Ruud very well recognized this. Despite the defeat, the 27-year-old showed his class and hailed Tsitsipas for his performance.

“I’d like to congratulate Stef for winning Monte Carlo once again. You love this tournament. Very very well played all week. I know you fell out of top 10 a few weeks ago but you’re back again where I think you belong. You’re a fantastic player and especially on clay and Monte Carlo. It’s fantastic. Congratulations to you and your team,” Ruud had said during the post-match interview.

This once again showed that the two share a very strong bond and do not allow competition to get in the way of their friendship.

Coming back, it is safe to say that both Tsitsipas and Ruud haven’t been going through the best of times coming into the Madrid Open. They have struggled to get into the later stages of almost all the tournaments that they have played so far this season and Tsitsipas has even dropped all the way down to No. 80 on the rankings.

If this wasn’t all, then Ruud had sustained a calf injury at the Monte Carlo Open last month and it had resulted in him not even being able to walk properly at one stage.

Casper Ruud opens up on “pretty tough” calf injury

The Norwegian had suffered the setback during his R16 clash against Felix Auger-Aliassime. He admitted that the injury was unlike anything that he had experienced and led to excruciating pain.

“It was hard to feel, hard to know what it was, because it was the first time I’ve felt something like this pain or instant pain in my calf. I was kind of slightly worried, but also maybe thinking it was a cramp, like the muscle just cramped up a bit, it was a pretty intense match with some long rallies, so maybe just cramped up a bit, but it turned out it wasn’t just a cramp,” Ruud said, speaking to Tennis TV.

As a result, Ruud had to pull out from the Barcelona Open. However, he ended up making a quick recovery and was back in action at the Spanish capital. When asked if the speed of his recovery had surprised him, the World No. 15 revealed that he was very worried about his chances of participating at the Madrid Open.

“Kind of. I mean the days after it was pretty tough to like even walk up the stairs, down the stairs and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to come here at all,” he added.

Ruud shrugged off all the injury concerns with dominant performances in the opening two rounds of the Madrid Open. Will the defending champion be able to continue his brilliant run of form on the clay-courts of Madrid, or will Tsitsipas be the one to reign supreme on this occasion?