ATP Indian Wells: Nick Kyrgios against Casper Ruud - reunion with explosiveness
Nick Kyrgios and Casper Ruud do not connect - to put it mildly - a great friendship. Now the two meet again at the Indian Wells ATP Masters 1000 event.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Mar 14, 2022, 08:01 am
The tense relationship between the clay court specialist Casper Ruud and bad boy Nick Kyrgios probably began in 2019. There the Australian made one of the most notable freaks in his career so far, destroyed a chair and finally said goodbye to the shower early on. Ruud, on the other hand, was able to be happy about entering the next round after Kyrgios' disqualification.
Of course, that wasn't the end of it, a few weeks later Ruud came back to the game - and justified his jubilation despite the less than glorious end to various media portals: "That I celebrated my victory? I didn't care. I was glad Having won 90 points and $50,000 in prize money, so why shouldn't I celebrate? It's his problem that he's an idiot on the court," Ruud said at the time.
Kyrgios didn't like this statement to some extent - and sent a message via social media: "The next time you have something to say, I would appreciate it if you said it to my face, I'm sure you wouldn't be like that afterwards talk a lot. Until then I'd rather watch the paint dry than watch you play tennis," the Australian wrote on Twitter.
There was also a brief quarrel between the two last year, when Kyrgios answered the Norwegian's question about what his favorite clay court tournament was, with "your mother". Deleted this underhand but quite quickly. However, this should not have been a balm for the already battered relationship between the two. So now there is a reunion on the court: Kyrgios, in Indian Wells so far in an excellent mood to play, challenges the current number eight in the tennis world, Casper Ruud.