HASLE, OSLO (VG) (Casper Ruud – Aleksandr Bublik, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6) Casper Ruud struggled with a minor injury and Kazakhstan’s trumpet, and failed to keep Norway’s playoff dream alive.
–
– I had a slight feeling of numbness. In addition, he was in a very rhythm with the serves, so I had to break it up a bit, says Ruud to VG about the treatment he received – and does not deny that it was a tactical treatment timeout.
Ruud had to be treated by physiotherapist Alexander Brun early in the third set. The Norwegian lay while the physio treated the abdominal region, which Ruud has struggled with after the final victory in Buenos Aires on 13 February.
The injury meant that he missed tournaments in Santiago and Rio de Janeiro, and also that coach Christian Ruud put him out of the doubles team to reduce the total load.
It was 1-1 after the first two sets, Ruud was broken in his first serve game by the decisive set and never managed to recover.
Ruud lost the match, and the pre-favorites from Kazakhstan won the qualification for the Davis Cup with 3-1 overall.
Kazakhstan was strong in the stands, with a powerful drum and trumpeter who alternated between playing film music from The Godfather and the latest hits.
Halfway through the second set, Ruud found it necessary to tell the referee, whereupon the match leader asked for increased silence around the points:
Basically, it should be quiet under points in tennis, and that was the rule Ruud claimed to the referee.
– I do not quite understand the point of having that rule. If you raise points, according to the rules, it can lead to the team being punished. When there are shouts and screams from the stands, I wonder why they do not punish. Where is the limit for what is an obstacle and what is not? What does it take for them to be punished? Tennis is a sport that is quiet all the time, so I must be allowed to ask, says Ruud to VG.
– This is nothing. Today it was 80 here, usually three or four hundred in away games. Imagine what it would have been like in Astana, where there would have been several thousand, says Bublik to VG about the away fans’ sound level.
Casper Ruud had to win to give Viktor Durasovic the opportunity to send Norway to the playoffs of the Davis Cup for the very first time.
Norway will return to the so-called World Group I of the Davis Cup to have the opportunity for a new playoffs next year.
–
