‘It was 100% impossible’ - Casper Ruud withdraws from first-round match at Australian Open injured

ByMarcus Foley

Published 18/01/2022 at 06:46 GMT

"I tried my best to recover, but two days is not usually enough to recover for a rolled ankle. I did everything I could, but to be able to play 100% was impossible today," Casper Ruud told Barbara Schett after he had to withdraw from his first-round match against Alex Molcan at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Stream the 2022 Australian Open live and on demand on discovery+.

Casper Ruud has withdrawn from the Australian Open due to an injured ankle.

The Norwegian was set to face Alex Molcan in the first round on Tuesday but his place will now be taken by lucky loser Roman Safiullin. World No. 8 Ruud has told Barbara Schett that he did everything he could to recover a rolled ankle suffered on Sunday, but, ultimately, given the mobile nature of his game, it was "100% impossible" that he would be able to compete.

"It’s an unfortunate thing that happened in practice on Sunday, I rolled my ankle, I twisted my ankle – it’s something that happened in a split second," Ruud told Schett.

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"Instantly of course I wish it didn’t because of the damage it has done to my ankle. I tried my best to recover, but two days is not usually enough to recover for a rolled ankle. I did everything I could, but to be able to play 100% was impossible today. With my tennis and my game I need to be able to move well to play well and that’s the idea – when the ankle is hurting and I cannot move very well then it is tough for me to play well."

The 23-year-old Ruud had a breakout year in 2021, achieving - or equalling - his best performances at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, and the Norwegian No. 1 added that it was a tough decision and he expected to take two to three weeks to recover.

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"It’s tough, it’s the first time I experienced something like this where I have pulled out before the tournament – usually I do everything I can to be able to play at least a little bit and give myself a chance but today it is too painful and it didn’t work out. It’s not an hour I will remember as being positive," he added.

"I am always positive looking ahead, looking at the positive side, it’s not the worst roll-over but two days is not maybe enough. It’s a long year, many tournaments are coming and hopefully I have an exciting year coming – I will play the biggest tournaments and hopefully I can do well and other chances will come.

"Usually recovery time for a rolled ankle is a week or two, I think in this case it will be more only one week. I will take the rest of the week off, I have a flight back to Europe, so I will probably stay here for a day or two more to see how it develops. For a long flight it’s good to keep compression on the ankle so it doesn’t swell up. I will hopefully be back on court soon."

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