Our creative coach, Evan Gaudreu, is back with his fictional take on what went on in the Ruud camp after his loss to Alcaraz in the US Open finals.

The Hangover, the Ruud version

Christian walked out of the room as Casper sat cross-legged on the mat. He began by focusing on his breathing and quieting his mind.
So many negative thoughts crept in.
What could I have changed?
It’s funny, he thought, that the announcers thought it was nerves at the beginning of the match.
He felt fine.
It wasn’t nerves.
He was overthinking how he wanted to start the match.
Let’s focus on that.
He breathed in.
Paused.
Breathed in a little more.
Paused.
And then breathed in a little more, expanding his lungs.
And then let all the air out and repeated the same process several times.
Do smokers realize they’re meditating?
Did they not realize they were meditating but in a negative way?
Focus.

Match on replay

Casper pulled in all the air he could hold and reversed the process by letting some air out, pausing, letting more out, pausing again, and then releasing the rest.
After a few minutes, he felt light and approached the “void.”
He replayed the first game in his head.
It didn’t go the way he had planned.
At 30-0, he tried to flight the combo and hit one shot long.
That error carried over to the next point, and he missed the first shot.
For the next few minutes, he focused on landing the backhand deep in the court and adding another shot to the pattern….
He focused on a four-shot combination.
He focused on hitting a forehand that landed in the center of the Ad side, then the backhand hitting the center of the court…THEN the next backhand landing towards the corner of the Ad side, and the next shot, a forehand, landing deep at the center of the court, and finally an aggressive forehand into the Deuce side.
He repeated the process and then created a few different outcomes.
Sometimes losing the point.
Sometimes winning the point.
When he thought about losing the point, he focused on his composure until he felt entirely relaxed.
During the last six months, he noticed a big difference in how he could quickly process and recoup after the point ended.
Casper was not sure how much time had passed.
Did it matter?

Visualization is the name of the game

When he finished the first process, he focused on the return game at 6-5 in the third set.
He felt frustration and anger as he thought about the game.
He repeated the breathing process until the negative thoughts went away.
And then, he focused on different outcomes again.
He was starting to feel exhausted.
His body was shaking, and he heard a voice…
”Casper…” someone said.
It sounded like his father.
“Casper.”
Casper opened his eyes and saw his father’s face.
“Buddy, you good?”
Casper had been lying on the ground.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“How far did you get?”
“Recreating the ending of the third set.”
“How many outcomes? Did you win every one?”
In the past, when he first started meditation, he visualized only winning. Now he focused on both sides.
Winning and losing.
And started focusing more on his body language.
“How long has it been?” Casper asked.
“It’s been an hour,” Christian said.
They both smiled.
Casper was getting much better with the process and was feeling the benefits.
The hardest part was learning to focus on accepting the outcome.
Feeling a radical form of acceptance.
This played a major role in breaking down the mental barriers holding him back.
Imagine if some of the other players on tour worked on this, he thought.

Fatherly love

“Do you mind if I spend another few minutes on this?”
“Son, not at all. Take your time. This is important for your tennis and your life.”
“I appreciate it, Dad. I appreciate what you have done for me. I wouldn’t be in this position without you.”
Christian smiled.
“I love you,” Casper said.
Christian felt his eyes start to water. He patted his son with his left hand and wiped his eyes with the other.
He turned and walked out of the room.
Casper went back to breathing and finished the session by feeling compassion for Carlos.
And then turning it into self-compassion.
Carlos didn’t know it yet,
But he is going to get him next time.

Here is another fictional-style analysis by Coach Evan Gaudreu. He reasons why Casper Ruud might win the US Open.

Why Casper Ruud might win the US Open 2022

The temperature was rising on the court as Christian Ruud was putting down an Evian bottle a foot away from the right side of the hash mark in the middle of the court.
“Normal” people never felt what it was like to get cooked on the court.
It was rough.
Like a flower wilting and drying up.
“At points in the match, we need to work off this spot here,” Christian said and pointed to the water bottle.
Casper stood at the opposite baseline bouncing the ball.
“Move him around the baseline,” Christian said to the “hitter.”
For the next five minutes, Casper scampered around the baseline, targeting the water bottle from different locations using different ball flights.
“A few more,” Christian said.
After a few more minutes, they took a break.
“Be careful of Carlos’s hammer. I saw him putting more time into controlling the point from the Ad side middle. You can see it from his matches.”
Casper nodded as he took a sip of water mixed with electrolytes.
“You’re not going to be able to target his forehand straight away as we did with Khachanov.…but you might have to…that’s up to you.”

Back on the court

They walked back onto the court, and Casper worked on slicing backhands to two locations in the Ad corner, one just past the service line skidding diagonally across the doubles ally and the second at the intersection of the baseline and the sideline.

“Mixing the patterns in the Ad corner and using the middle of the court will be key,” Christian said, “But it all starts with how you use the service box to manipulate his hands with your first ball.”

Recently Casper had been working on the idea of using specific targets in the service box and corresponding them with his first shot. In the past, he had been simply thinking, “Ok. Hit the wide serve and target the open court.” He realized now that there was much more to the concept than everyone had been taught for the last twenty years. When you worked on specific target areas, it was much easier to control your locations. More importantly, the emotions and anxiety disappeared, and he could stay focused on his game plan.
“The tricky part will be when to mix it up.”
After they took another break, Casper worked on returns. He worked on three locations on the Deuce side. Two locations were in the center of the court, each on the opposite side of the middle of the court. The other location targeted the Deuce side triangle by pulling the return off the sideline.
On the Ad side, he worked on getting the return to the backhand corner, specifically the sideline.
“How do you feel, son?”
“I feel good,” Casper said and smiled. “I feel ready.”
Carlos is going to have a hell of a time, he thought.
They grabbed their gear and started to walk off the court. They stopped to sign autographs.

Tight

A few minutes later, he was getting a massage.
Halfway through, Christian walked into the room and put his hand on Casper’s back as he lay face down on the table.
“How do you feel?”
“Ok…My right thigh’s a little tight.”
The masseuse alternated between digging her fingers into his hamstring and moving her thumbs up and down.
“I noticed you weren’t moving as well to your backhand.”
“The right leg’s tired, but I will be fine. Det blir som det er.”
The Masseuse switched to the other leg.
When she finished, Christian gave her a tip and said thank you.
After she left the room, Christian smiled.
“How do you feel?” he asked again.
“The legs are good.”
“Good. You can’t trust anyone.”
They planned their exchange before the massage. Players and teams were “spying” on each other. Especially the Spanish players.
“You think she’ll tell Carlos’s team.”
“Who knows? But you have to assume. Ingenting er hellig.”

A student of the game

Rumors were going through the locker rooms that some top coaches were paying people to cheer on certain types of errors, especially double faults.
And especially at big points.
Father and son met up with their family for dinner.
Afterward, Christian and Casper watched some of the Alcaraz/Tiafoe match.
“Watch Tiafoe and pay attention to his baseline points. Don’t focus on the unreturnable serves or aces.”
Casper watched the match for a few games.
“He’s playing a form of “threes.”
“Yes. He’s getting better…Smarter from how he was playing this spring. He’s not just playing Serve plus one tennis like the other Americans. He’s thinking. He’s using more space on the court.”
Christian had noticed during some of the practice sessions over the Summer that Tiafoe was using three locations and manipulating the progression of shots. At the Open, it was starting to show during the matches.
“That’s why you’re working in ‘fours’ and doubles. It’s easy for good players to read ‘threes.’ ‘Fours’ add one more dimension.

Doubles and Fours

For the last half of the year, Casper and his team worked on two concepts. Doubles and Fours.
Doubles were mixing two three-ball combos during the same point.
Casper struggled with the training at first.
They kept it simple and hit two balls to the Deuce side and one to the Ad, Adding a fourth shot to the deep center of the court; they called a recycle and repeated a similar pattern to the other side, also with a recycle shot. The recycle shot was a way for the mind to “reset” the next sequence of shots.
These types of points were sprinkled throughout the match.
Sometimes as a change-up. Most of the time as a diversion to hide the simple combos.
What helped this spring and summer was being able to work on these during tournament matches.
They had been studying Novak for some time and were amazed how he used main draw matches as conceptual “practice.”
Fours were something new.
Fours required you to manipulate patterns in segments of four.

Novak the GOAT

After watching Novak’s matches, they realized his “drop” locations were more precise than the other players. When they looked more into his matches, they discovered he had to be cutting the baseline into four segments. Once they understood that, training in fours was so much easier. A player could use two specific boxes that were close together. Two that were separated by an “empty” box and two on the opposite sides of the court.
Their training of fours was still in its infancy. It was taking a lot longer than they thought. During this time, they realized Novak was the GOAT.
They heard a crunching noise from behind the curtain.
Weird.
Then maniacal laughter.
They looked over.
“Time and Space,” a man said. “Time and Space.”
Out popped crazy Terry Silver from Cobra Kai. He walked across the room, holding a bowl of popcorn.
He put the bowl down on the table, and shadow swung a forehand while he grunted, “Eyetz.”
Then he made a chopping swing.
“Swoosh.”
Christian and Casper sat frozen.
“You have to mix up your over spin…with your underspin.”
Terry made “Eyetz” and “Swoosh” noises for the next ten seconds and stopped abruptly.
He stared intently at the computer.
“That’s why I watch tennis matches,” he said and pointed at the screen. “Boobs, my friend…Boobs.” He touched Casper’s back, wiping his popcorn hands. “These cameramen are great. Real pros…Artists.”
Terry grabbed his popcorn bowl and started singing the song “Psycho chicken” by the band the Fools. It was a spoof song ripped off from the band Talking Heads.
He opened the door and walked out into the hallway, never to be seen again.
Hopefully.

Time and Space

“What was he talking about?”
“Time and Space…For instance, take a look at Novak. Why do you think his serve average is at 115mph? We know he can get much higher.”
“He gets better location.”
“Ya, but the ball also doesn’t come back as fast on the return, which gives him time to set up his baseline patterns, which is the main goal.”
He took a sip of water.
“A lot of the guys are so focused on speed and power,” he added. “Power is good. Variasjon er livets krydder.”
They spent the next thirty minutes going over a game plan for Sunday’s final.
Christian wanted to talk about what they wanted to do after the Open final to ease the tension but thought better of it. He realized the thought would pop up in Casper’s head during the match. A lesson he learned the hard way after the Roland Garros match with Rafa.
He thought about going to Sweden. Hiking in Ornskoldsvik and playing golf at the Veckefjardens Golf Club owned by Peter Forsberg.
They will vacation as US Open champions.