LAVER CUP

September 25, 2026

Casper Ruud

Tim Henman

O2 Arena

Team Europe

Press Conference

C. RUUD/F. Cerundolo

6-7, 6-4, 10-8

Team Europe - 1

Team World - 0

THE MODERATOR: Hi, Casper, Tim. Congratulations. First point on the board for Team Europe.

Casper, do you want to tell us how that feels.

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it was a great start for us. Obviously every point on the board is important. I knew that. Even though I was down one set to love, I felt let's try to pull this one out for the team and get a point on the board. It's never over until it's over.

Obviously being a match tiebreak in the third makes you even more maybe willing to really fight to win at least one set to get it into match tiebreak.

I was not pleased at all times with my game, but very pleased with the win.

THE MODERATOR: Great. Let's have some questions.

Q. Congrats on the win. Can you just talk about the tone early on? It looked maybe like a little nervy, like you were both trying to find your way in. There were some uncharacteristic errors, but you eventually got your feet under you.

CASPER RUUD: Yes, it was. I wasn't finding particularly my return, second-serve returns, that well. I had a plan to try to go around and play as many forehands as possible, and I wasn't able to get around the ball exactly how I wanted.

I mishit a few and I hit a few long, a little bit of maybe uncharacteristic, as you said. When I play my best, I don't do those mistakes. So somewhat nervy, little bit rusty. Maybe I haven't played a match at this level in a few weeks.

Montreal was the last match I played at a full, high level. You feel it. I mean, every player feels this way. The feeling of playing good tennis is fresh. It can come and go fast.

Hopefully a win like today can show me that even without my perfect tennis, I can fight matches and win, winning as good players.

Q. Obviously the team were really trying to pump you up and get you going. How much did that help?

CASPER RUUD: It helped a lot. Some of them, and particularly Tim to my side, he stayed all match. It was a tough first set to lose. I just told myself, Let's try to win for the boys and the team, and it's not just about me out there. Give it a good effort.

The guys pushed me and helped me and pulled for me. When we entered the match tiebreak, it was nice to see all the guys on the bench.

Didn't necessarily get off to a great start in the match tiebreak but fought my way back and won some important points towards the end, which was fun to see the teammates. They get cheerful and happy.

Q. A question for Tim. Watching from the sidelines, was there any signs of encouragement that you thought Casper could come through this match?

VICE CAPTAIN TIM HENMAN: Yeah, it was very tough, because there were so few opportunities, I think. Casper talking about struggling a little bit on second-serve return, I also think Cerundolo's quality of serving made life difficult from the back of the court, hitting so hard, so aggressively, and that's a reflection why there were no breakpoints in the first set.

There were a couple of breakpoints in the second set, and Casper was able to get that. But it felt like he was pushing water uphill, because Cerundolo was impressive, and once he got into the champions tiebreak, 10-point tiebreak, anything can happen. I think it emphasizes not always about how you start, it's how you finish.

I think the way Casper finished it off in the tiebreak was very impressive.

Q. Casper, you are now quite used to the Laver Cup. You had two different captains and vice captains. Is there a difference between the coaching you had before and the coaching you have with this team?

CASPER RUUD: Yes, there is a few differences. With Yannick and Tim, there is quite a bit more singing than with Bjorn and Thomas (smiling).

I would say both Bjorn and Yannick, they are free souls, free spirits, and take life fairly easy and don't stress about too many things, which is nice. I mean, sometimes players maybe put too much pressure and stress on themselves, and we do lead a stressful life at times, but it's nice to have a mix of Yannick who sees tennis in a different way, particularly to me, and also contrast to Tim who watches a lot of tennis, commentates a lot of tennis. He sees us almost not every week but kind of month in, month out, at the big tournaments, and he knows strengths and weaknesses in kind of all of our games.

They challenge, both of them challenge me in a good way, because they come a lot more to the net, or they used to, than I am doing. They play a little bit of a flatter ball and challenge me to do that, as well.

It's nice to hear other opinions that I haven't heard in many years from Tim and Yannick.

Q. I have a question for Tim. In terms of watching tennis, when you're watching your players as a vice captain, do you watch it differently than if you're watching a game as a pundit or as a commentator?

VICE CAPTAIN TIM HENMAN: No, not at all. I mean, I've got a lot more vested interest obviously watching these matches because I'm part of the team, but I'm always looking strategically when I'm commentating, who's doing what and why is one person winning, what are the strengths and weaknesses.

That, as Casper referenced, having been working in the media for the last sort of five years, I'm seeing a lot of these players play. So there aren't too many sort of secrets or things that I haven't been able to watch.

This is where, you know, the coaching element is not teaching. There is teaching and coaching. Coaching is about strategy, it's about game plans, and trying to, you know, help with the individual matchups, because you only have to be better than one player.

It was very close today, but Casper was able to be better than Cerundolo, and that's why we got the point.