Casper Ruud will make his 2024 Roland Garros debut on Day 3, aiming to reach a third consecutive final at the Parisian Slam. While Ruud has consistently been a top player for a few years, he has repeatedly come up short on the biggest moments. At Slams, he lost the previous two Roland Garros finals to Nadal and Djokovic, as well as the 2022 US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz. He also lost the 2022 World Tour Finals final to Djokovic and the Masters 1000 finals to Alcaraz.
He finally won an ATP 500 this year in Barcelona, but that’s a very poor resumé when it comes to big trophies for a player who has already been one match away from reaching No. 1 in the world.
Can Ruud peak at the French Open?
Roland Garros is, without a doubt, Ruud’s best tournament. One has to imagine that if he is ever to win a Grand Slam title, it will happen in Paris. This might well be the best opportunity he will ever have; Nadal has already been eliminated in the first round, Djokovic is having a very poor 2024 by his standards, and Alcaraz and Zverev have serious questions about their fitness. Ruud is still very far from the favorite to win the tournament, but the huge obstacles that stopped him in 2022 and 2023 have become considerably smaller.
His tournament debut will be against Felipe Meligeni Alves, who shouldn’t really cause too many issues. While Ruud’s lack of big weapons makes him struggle against the very best in big matches, his consistency makes him relentless against lower-level opposition. That is even more true on clay in a best-of-five format. While most consider it unlikely that Ruud will ever win a Slam due to that aforementioned lack of big weapons, Roland Garros 2024 might well be the best opportunity Ruud will ever have to prove those doubters wrong.
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey – USA TODAY Sports
