Casper Ruud – Basic Service 3.0

Young newcomer from Oslo Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR), son of former Norwegian Davis Cup player Christian Ruud, stunned many with his main draw semifinals qualification at the ATP 500 event in Brasilian Rio de Janeiro in the end of February 2017. He was even one point away from the finals qualification as he had a match point in the second set of his semifinals match against Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP), which he lost in 3 sets i the end. With this result, Casper, former ITF Junior #1, who won 2 features and 1 challenger event so far, scored the most remarkable result from all the promising players born in 1998 (also Duck Hee Lee, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Geoffrey Blancaneaux, Ulises Blanch among others) as up to today.

Photos below show Casper’s service during 2015 Orange Bowl. Even thought that his service was not that dominant back then, the most important basic characteristics of the Service 3.0 were already there at that time and they provided a solid base for further development/improvement. The most important among them is the proper understanding of the “follow through 1” with a well-executed (well-pronounced) targeted pronation.

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 1st service in the match – 1 of 3 – start with a comfortable wide base – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 1st service in the match – 2 of 3 – follow through 1 (=targeted pronation)  with good control of the shoulder axis – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 1st service in the match – 3 of 3 – follow through 2 (=relaxation) – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 2nd service in the match – cocking/push-off with well-alined racket, excellent elbow position and perfect eye control of the tossed ball – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 1st service in the match – follow through 1 with perfect targeted pronation, the bending in the hip area is rather suboptimal here – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 2nd service in the match – topspin – 1 of 2 – calm beginning of the toss/backswing – 2015 Orange Bowl – Plantation, FL / USA

Casper Ruud (*98 / NOR) – 2nd service in the match – topspin – 2 of 2 – follow through 1 with pronation going more away from the body than with a direct service – 2015 Orange Bowl -Plantation, FL / USA

This article is just a partial service analysis. More photos and detailed information about Casper’s service and his other strokes as well as about the strokes of many other top junior players are available upon request at drmgb11(at)gmail.com

Photos (December 2015) & text (February 2017) copyright by Dr. Martin G. Baroch