French Open: Casper Ruud exclusive: ‘I gave it my all’ as he credits Novak Djokovic for ‘rewriting tennis history’

Casper Ruud has reached three finals out of the last five Grand Slams played, an incredible achievement for any player. But he has yet to make it over the line, coming up just short against Novak Djokovic as the Serbian player made history at Roland-Garros. When Ruud reached this stage 12 months ago, he looked overawed to be playing his idol, Rafael Nadal, and only managed to win six games across three sets.

But this time around, the Norwegian came out all guns blazing and broke Djokovic’s first service game to take an immediate 2-0 lead in the first set. Ad That lead looked like holding — but Djokovic wouldn’t go away and managed to break back and force a tie-break, despite Ruud having played the better of the two. But once in that tie-break, Djokovic raised his level as he so often does, to a level Ruud just couldn’t live with.

Roland-GarrosExclusive: Djokovic admits he's ‘overwhelmed with emotion’ after historic winAN HOUR AGO “Novak [Djokovic] makes it difficult for you,” Ruud said when he spoke exclusively to Eurosport courtside after the final. “He didn’t start the greatest. I had the better start, but he just goes into this mode where he makes balls after balls, it’s tough to find winners against him.