Casper Ruud and Emma Raducanu have both agreed to play the ASB Classic, which will be staged again in Auckland, New Zealand, before the Australian Open. The tournament did not take place in the last 2 years because of the global pandemic. Fortunately, the local fans will have the opportunity to have top tennis players back in January.
The tournament director Nicolas Lamperin confessed that it was more difficult to lure Emma Raducanu than Casper Ruud despite the different rankings.
“One of the easiest was Casper Ruud. You would have thought it would have been more difficult because of his ranking, but he’s the kind of guy who likes to play a lot of ATP 50 tournaments and doesn’t mind playing the week before a grand slam,” said Nicolas.
“I guess it was more challenging with Emma Raducanu. We wanted to wait to see what happened after the US Open. On both sides, there was interest, she was also keen to hear about what was happening with the United Cup, so it took longer to agree. But in the end, we were on the same page,” he added.
Casper Ruud in 2022
Currently ranked no.3, the Norwegian played his last match on the 20th of November when he capitulated to world no.5 Novak Djokovic 7-5 6-3 in the final in the Nitto ATP Finals (draw)
.This season Casper has an overall 51-22 match record. The Norwegian has won 3 titles in 2022 in Buenos Aires, Geneva and Gstaad. Ruud was the runner-up in Miami, French Open, U.S. Open and the Nitto ATP Finals.
Emma Raducanu in 2022
Now ranked no.75, Emma played her last match on the 4th of October when she was overcome by world no.8 Darya Kasatkina 7-5 6-4 in the 1st round in Ostrava (draw).
This season Emma achieved a composed 17-19 record. Emma Raducanu’s most significant accomplishment of the current season was reaching the semifinal in Seoul.