Ruud: Even with three losses I’m still a Grand Slam contender

Casper Ruud refuses to be downtrodden after losing his third Grand Slam final in a year, with the Norwegian going down 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday to invincible Novak Djokovic in the Roland Garros final.

The Serb winner wrote an all-time record with his 23rd Grand Slam singles crown, the most of any man in the game and one more than Rafael Nadal.

Ruud was defeated for the second time in a French Open final and also lost the US Open title match last season to Djokovic.

But the optimistic Scandinavian feels his time at the top will come.

“I’ve learned that best-of-five sets on clay, I know for the future that I will try to be a tough player to beat. 

“I’m just going to try to stay there, play every point in the right way, and if I

have to make it physical, I’ll try to make it physical for my opponents.

“Last year (Paris and New York finals) was just not a coincidence.

“I can hopefully have more nice experiences here in Roland Garros in the future.”

The ATP No. 4 admitted he could not stop a red-hot Djokovic on the day.

“Every time I play Novak it’s in a big match, so he’s motivated to try to win. 

“I feel like I played him many times where he’s like the best version of himself, where he’s just really locked in, and doesn’t give you much. 

“He makes it very tough to win every point against him, he reads the game very well, it’s tough to find winners against him. 

“All  credits and honour to him for how good he is. I gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough.”