Tennis Briefing: Casper Ruud speaks on human rights; more and more injury withdrawals

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.

This week, the Six Kings Slam ended, while tournaments in Europe and Asia moved the season closer to the finals in Turin, Italy, for the ATP and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the WTA.

Ugo Humbert became the latest player to criticise the tennis schedule this week. The French world No. 16 called the extension of several ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (competitions one rung below the four Grand Slams) to two-week events as “bull***t” in an interview with Tennis Majors from the German city of Frankfurt, adding that “they tell us that we earn more money but it’s not true, we have twice as many expenses”. Humbert was in Frankfurt for the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) event, where he lost to Ben Shelton of the United States in the final match.

Meanwhile, in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Nordic Open, world No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov told Danish outlet SpilXperten that he has struggled with his mental health during his career, citing panic attacks and anxiety. “It helps when you can talk to people … Even if it’s another tennis player. I always say we should be more open to each other, I know it’s difficult,” the 33-year-old Bulgarian said.

At the same tournament, world No. 8 Casper Ruud spoke about sportswashing in light of the Six Kings Slam exhibition event, which was taking place concurrently in Riyadh. Ruud said he hadn’t been asked to be part of that competition but has had offers to play in the kingdom previously, which he turned down. Jannik Sinner won the $6million (£4.6m) on offer in Riyadh, beating Carlos Alcaraz in three sets in the final.

Ruud talked about the individual case of Saudi Arabia but also said that there are other countries which host tennis tour events up for discussion regarding their human rights records.

“You can definitely discuss China and human rights in China, but we go there every year,” he told SpilXperten on Thursday.

“There was a lot of talk about Peng Shuai and what happened to her, and it’s just to say that if you want to put Saudi Arabia as a controversial country, there should be other countries as well that should be mentioned, and we don’t mention those.”

In the same week, Ruud was asked by Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri about the tax system in his native Norway and whether the highest earners have to pay too much. “I have to admit that I have also thought about moving. There are very drastic tax increases that have been introduced in recent years,” he said.

“It definitely hurts to pay so much more in taxes. I think it is completely the wrong way to go by the Norwegian government. They are shooting themselves in the foot, and causing a lot of capital and people to flee the country.”

Ruud’s comments caused something of a diplomatic storm, with politicians from across the divide weighing in and reminding the player of the importance of community to the country and making the case that Norway is on a par, taxes-wise, with many of its neighbours.

By Friday, Ruud said that he wouldn’t be talking about politics again for a while. “I think the other day was the last bit of political involvement for a few weeks at least, because a lot of people have a lot of opinions on anything you say and people have different views,” he told SpilXperten after losing to Tallon Griekspoor in the quarterfinals in Stockholm.

“I won’t speak much about politics for a while, I think.”

It’s a problem for tennis that its players can feel that as soon as they venture an opinion, the response makes doing so not worth it. As Ruud pointed out, the fewer sportspeople do it, the bigger the backlash for those that do. “It does not happen very often, so that’s maybe why,” he said.

It’s becoming even rarer for athletes to venture an opinion on issues beyond their sport, at a time when geopolitics and sport intersect like never before. With eight of the best and most important female athletes in the world competing at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia next month, and for at least the two years following, sportswashing will remain relevant to tennis. How much players will speak about it remains to be seen.

Tennis players feel overworked and exhausted — it’s an almost weekly point of discussion in this column because it’s an issue that just won’t go away. Often, these feelings are expressed during press conferences or via a player’s social media accounts, but sometimes they simply vote with their feet.

This week’s Tokyo Open could have concocted a decent tournament just from the players who have withdrawn. Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, Danielle Collins, Barbora Krejcikova and Naomi Osaka are among almost a dozen players who have pulled out due to injury or illness. Daria Kasatkina, who won last week’s WTA 500 in Ningbo, China, is continuing on, alongside No. 1 seed Zheng Qinwen. But Mirra Andreeva, who Kasatkina beat in Sunday’s final in Ningbo, has exhausted the number of tournaments she is allowed to play per season before turning 18.

Some players are starting to think about 2025 already and some, including Pegula and Krejcikova, have already qualified for the WTA Finals so there’s no huge incentive for them to take any risks by entering tournaments between now and the year-ending event starting in Riyadh on November 2.

There is an extent to which it was ever thus, but it’s a problem for the sport when so many players are having to take matters into their own hands to try to get some proper rest towards the end of the year. Especially at the same time that the top two players in the world, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, are being docked points for missing their quota of WTA 500 events, with rule enforcement changing who currently holds the No. 1 ranking.

The 28-year-old’s return from wrist surgery began at on the grass at Eastbourne in June. It was her first tournament of 2024, and she lost in the quarterfinals to Madison Keys by walkover, before exiting Wimbledon in the first round a week later. There, she lost to Paula Badosa, who was also returning from injury.

At the time, Muchova told that she had been unsure if she would play again, having been unable to get out of bed or brush her teeth after the surgery.

Following their match at SW19, Badosa revealed that she had atypical advice for the Czech. “Have patience,” she said in a news conference. “Maybe, to another player, I would say something different, but she’s so talented. Her level will come back.”

Badosa has been proven right.

Since Wimbledon, Muchova has played 25 matches, losing five and retiring from a sixth — her final match of the season against Andreeva in the semifinals of the Ningbo Open — with an apparent hip injury. She has reached the U.S. Open semifinals and two more finals, losing to Zheng Qinwen in Palermo in July and Coco Gauff in Beijing last month; she has got to the quarterfinals or better in five of the seven events she has entered this year. Muchova has also returned to the top 32, putting herself in very strong contention to be seeded at the Australian Open in January.

As comeback tours go, it’s gone pretty well.

The professional tennis tours have their usual haunts and locales across the United States — Miami, New York, Palm Springs.

South Dakota? Not so much.

All that changes this week, when what organizers say is the Midwestern state’s first professional tournament arrives in Sioux Falls at Huether Family Match Pointe, a 10-court facility that will host a Challenger Tour event featuring some decently familiar names, including 2023 Wimbledon star Chris Eubanks, 2018 Australian Open semifinalist Kyle Edmund and Eliot Spizzirri, who qualified for this year’s U.S. Open by beating rising star Joao Fonseca.

“People are really excited,” said Mark Vellek, the tournament director and executive director of the venue in Sioux Falls, a city of just over 200,000 people that’s a five-hour drive from the U.S./Canada border. “At this level, you get to get so close to the players.”

Vellek and his team wanted to host an event in the past, but the facility wasn’t up to ATP standards. So they added new courts and lights and resurfaced existing courts. Now they have the appropriate amount of space for practice and a proper lounge for the players.

There are two show courts. The facility can accommodate about 600 spectators — not exactly the 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open, but that’s just fine. Early-round tickets will sell for about $25 (£20), with seats for the singles final starting at $80. The prize money is $82,000, and total expenses are above $250,000, with more than two dozen players to house and feed.

Do the math. This is not a money-making endeavor, not in year one at least. That’s fine, too.

“We want to fill the place with fans, and take care of the players,” Vellek said. “Our hope is to have this be an annual thing.”

Not bad, Hugo Gaston. Not bad.

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Tommy Paul (4) def. Grigor Dimitrov (3) 6-4, 6-3 to win the Nordic Open (250) in Stockholm, Sweden. It is the American’s fourth ATP title.

🏆 Roberto Bautista Agut def. Jiri Lehecka (5) 7-5, 6-1 to win the European Open (250) in Antwerp, Belgium. It is the Spaniard’s first ATP title since 2022.

🏆 Karen Khachanov (3) def. Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 to win the Almaty Open (250) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is the Russian’s second ATP title of 2024.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Daria Kasatkina (5) def. Mirra Andreeva 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Ningbo Open (500) in Ningbo, China. It is Kasatkina’s second WTA 500 title of the year.

🏆 Suzan Lamens (Q) def. Kimberly Birrell (Q) 6-0, 6-4 to win the Japan Open (250) in Osaka, Japan. It is her first ever WTA title.

📈 Daria Kasatkina moves up two places from No. 11 to No. 9 to return to the WTA top 10.

📈 Gabriel Diallo ascends 31 spots from No. 118 to No. 87, a career high, after his run to the final in Almaty.

📈 Suzan Lamens rises to a career high of her own after winning the title in Osaka. She moves 37 places from No. 125 to No. 88.

📉 Ben Shelton falls five places from No. 17 to No. 22 after dropping his points for last year’s Tokyo Open (500) title.

📉 Elise Mertens drops eight places from No. 28 to No. 36, falling out of the top 32 players who will be seeded at the Australian Open.

📉 Gael Monfils tumbles 11 spots from No. 41 to No. 52, dropping out of the top 50.

🎾 ATP 

📍Vienna, Austria: Erste Bank Open (500) featuring Dominic Thiem, Jack Draper, Frances Tiafoe, Alex De Minaur.