Casper Ruud hoped his short training stint at Rafa Nadal\u2019s academy in Mallorca would reignite his season as the 27-year-old returns from an injury to defend his Madrid Open title this week.<\/p>\n
Ruud, who lifted his maiden Masters 1000 title in the Spanish capital last year, sustained a leg injury and was forced to retire from his third-round match at the Monte Carlo Masters against Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian then ramped up his comeback under the close watch of 22-times Grand Slam champion Nadal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to say I\u2019m fully recovered,\u201d Ruud said in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit worried at first, I thought Madrid would be tough. But I\u2019ve had good days of recovery. I spent a week in Mallorca, training at Rafa\u2019s academy and working on fitness off the court. I\u2019m really pleased to be here, ready to compete again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruud said he was inspired by the now-retired Nadal\u2019s determination during a glittering playing career that came to an end in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing you can learn from him, it\u2019s determination,\u201d Ruud added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never gave up, and he was able to win many matches without being at his best because he was so well prepared physically and mentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many things you can learn from Rafa. This time, we didn\u2019t spend much time together on court. He encouraged me to keep going and told me I have plenty to fight for in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruud begins his Madrid campaign against Jaume Munar or Alexander Shevchenko in the second round.<\/p>\n
The twice French Open runner-up is eyeing a strong run in the weeks leading up to Roland Garros, which begins on May 24.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32875,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-32874","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Norwegian then ramped up his comeback under the close watch of 22-times Grand Slam champion Nadal.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Norwegian then ramped up his comeback under the close watch of 22-times Grand Slam champion Nadal.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32876,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32874\/revisions\/32876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}