{"id":90481,"date":"2025-09-13T12:38:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=90481"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:38:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:38:39","slug":"ruud-to-become-father-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/09\/13\/ruud-to-become-father-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Casper Ruud to Become a Father in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ATP Tour has a new father-to-be. On his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/casperruud\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram account<\/a>, Norway&#8217;s Casper Ruud shared that his fianc\u00e9e Maria Galligani is expecting a baby. &#8220;The team is growing. See you next year, babygirl,&#8221; wrote the former World No. 2, revealing the gender of the baby.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a disappointing second half of the season, Ruud had plenty of reasons to smile in 2025. After finally capturing his long-awaited first Masters 1000 title in Madrid, he struggled to build on that success. He was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/28\/casper-ruud-early-french-open-exit\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">knocked out in the second round of the French Open<\/a> and skipped the entire grass season due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>The North American hard-court swing was no better, as he won just three matches across Toronto, Cincinnati, and the US Open. Still, he managed to plan his wedding after proposing last November. &#8220;Since I didn&#8217;t play the grass, I had time to go for some trips to find the perfect location, and we did&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IAUpLWVmRdk?si=vK5XDtCVE3QWyvjZ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Tennis Channel<\/a>. And now, he has announced that he is going to be a father.<\/p>\n<h2>An Outpouring of Congratulations<\/h2>\n<p>Casper Ruud is one of the most liked players on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ATP Tour<\/a>, so it came as no surprise that many fellow tennis stars congratulated him and his fianc\u00e9e. From the new World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz to his fellow Scandinavian Holger Rune, and from Novak Djokovic to Rafa Nadal (and Nadal\u2019s sister, Maribel, as well). Others included Denis Shapovalov, Tommy Paul, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and Tom\u00e1s Mart\u00edn Etcheverry.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DOeG5EdjeHF\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div style=\"padding: 16px;\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\"width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\"><a style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DOeG5EdjeHF\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A post shared by Casper Ruud (@casperruud)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Former tennis stars also joined in, such as Tommy Robredo, Juan M\u00f3naco, Jo\u00e3o Sousa, and Kim Clijsters. Fellow Norwegians celebrated too\u2014from tennis players Ulrikke Eikeri and Malene Helg\u00f8 to winter sports athletes like alpine ski racer Kajsa Vickhoff Lie and legendary cross-country skier Johannes H\u00f8sflot Kl\u00e6bo.<\/p>\n<h3>A New Father on the ATP Tour<\/h3>\n<p>If we compare tennis with sports such as Formula 1\u2014where, among the 20 drivers on the grid, just two (Nico H\u00fclkenberg and Max Verstappen) are fathers\u2014the ATP Tour is far more populated by fathers at the elite level. In the current top 10, half the players have at least one child: Alexander Zverev, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/09\/11\/father-time-novak-djokovic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Novak Djokovic<\/a>, Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Musetti, and Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n<p>But the list of tennis fathers goes on and includes Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Bublik, Roberto Bautista Agut, Nicol\u00e1s Jarry, and more. Casper Ruud is expected to join this group soon and, who knows, maybe he\u2019ll carry on the family tradition, as his father Christian Ruud was a professional player as well. But of course there will be no pressure on the little girl on the way.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane &#8211; USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ATP Tour has a new father-to-be. On his Instagram account, Norway&#8217;s Casper Ruud shared that his fianc\u00e9e Maria Galligani is expecting a baby. &#8220;The team is growing. See you next year, babygirl,&#8221; wrote the former World No. 2, revealing the gender of the baby. Despite a disappointing second half of the season, Ruud had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5454,"featured_media":56991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5338,510,85,5729,811,498,776,7605,357,856,844,1741,10332,986,22,710,447,347,12521,1635,3641],"class_list":["post-90481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-casper-ruud","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-denis-shapovalov","tag-holger-rune","tag-joao-sousa","tag-juan-monaco","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-kim-clijsters","tag-lorenzo-musetti","tag-nicolas-jarry","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafa-nadal","tag-roberto-bautista-agut","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tomas-martin-etcheverry","tag-tommy-paul","tag-tommy-robredo"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90540,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90481\/revisions\/90540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}