Every week Baseline will select a “Player of the Week.” That athlete may not always win the highest category tournament that week, but perform the best compared to their recent playing history.
It isn’t often that you find a tennis prodigy in Norway, but for the Ruud family, you can say that the sport runs in their DNA. Christian Ruud reached a career-high of No. 39 in the rankings in 1995, higher than any Norwegian man in history.
Three years later, his son, Casper, was born. And if the 18-year-old’s performance at the Rio Open has shown anything, it is that he could challenge his father’s best ranking, and with it his country’s, sooner rather than later.
"We are both very competitive and both love to win at everything,” Casper told the ATP. “He is an essential part of my team. I don't feel any pressure that he was a professional player. In fact, it's the opposite; it has helped me a lot."
Christian Ruud was solid at a young age, competing in two junior Grand Slams. But his son made a far larger splash, reaching the top of the ITF Junior rankings just after his 17th birthday.
Perhaps what is more impressive has been his rapid ascent up the professional rankings. A year ago, Ruud was ranked No. 1,148. Now after a tremendous week in Rio de Janeiro, during which he came within a point of making the final, the Norwegian is up to No. 133. How about that for a year’s work?