Casper Ruud has continued his impressive run of form on the clay court after he defeated Jack Draper in the final of the Madrid Open to secure his maiden win at the event.
Ruud beat Draper 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to claim his first Masters 1000 title at the Madrid Open, after falling at the final hurdle in Miami in 2022 and Monte Carlo in 2024.
Ruud has more wins (125), finals (17) and titles (12) than any other player on clay since 2020. However, he arrived at this year’s Mutua Madrid Open with a question mark hanging over his form, having bowed out in the last sixteen in Monte Carlo and the quarters in Barcelona, where he was the defending champion. Those results caused him to fall to 15th position in the ATP world rankings.
With his two-hour, 29-minute triumph, Ruud became the first Norwegian to claim a Masters 1000 crown. A three-time Grand Slam finalist and former No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, the 26-year-old is now a 13-time champion on the ATP Tour. In Madrid, he recorded three Top 10 wins in the same event for only the second time in his career: He downed World No. 4 Taylor Fritz, No. 10 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 Draper en route to the title, ATP reports.
Despite defeat, Draper will leave Madrid with a 19-5 record for the season, and he will on Monday rise one spot to a career-high No. 5 in the ATP Rankings.