MadridPair will face off Sunday for clay ATP Masters 1000 trophy
May 03, 2025
Mutua Madrid Open
Jack Draper and Casper Ruud will contest their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in the Madrid title match. By Andy West
Both Jack Draper and Casper Ruud will step on court Sunday at the Mutua Madrid Open knowing they are on the brink of a significant personal breakthrough.
The pair faces off from 6:30 p.m. CEST/12:30pm in the title match at the ATP Masters 1000. Fifth seed Draper, a Masters 1000 champion earlier this year in Indian Wells, is now aiming to lift his maiden tour-level trophy on clay. Meanwhile the 14th-seeded Ruud is chasing his first Masters 1000 trophy on his third championship-match appearance at that level.
Both Draper and Ruud have enjoyed a smooth ride to the final in Madrid, with neither dropping a set across their five matches. The dominance of both players so far in the Spanish capital adds an element of intrigue to their final clash, as does the fact that this will be Draper and Ruud’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
Regardless of whether he defeats Ruud or not, Draper will on Monday leapfrog Novak Djokovic to a career-high No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings. It will be the latest achievement in a standout 2025 so far for the Briton, who in the past 12 months has notably added attacking firepower to his lefty game.
“I think I got to 50 in the world by sort of counter punching and being defensive,” said Draper, who is also up to second in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, after overcoming Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals. “Then I was in a bit of a crisis last year, thinking like, ‘Where’s my game going to go, what do I need to change?’ Then I did certain things, and I tried to maybe go the opposite end of the spectrum and try and hit every ball as hard as I can and return up the court and do all these things. But it didn’t really work, that experiment.
“What was important was that I learn how to be defensive and do all those things, but also attack when I need to attack. So I think I’ve got the balance a lot better now… I’m a big guy, but I’m not just a guy who hits big serves and can hit a big winner, I can do everything on the court, and that’s I think what all the top players are able to do.”
If Draper goes on to lift the trophy, he will join World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz as the only men born in the 2000s to earn tour-level titles on hard, clay and grass. The 23-year-old’s red-hot form in Madrid is reflected in the Tennis INSIGHTS Shot Quality analysis of his performances so far in the Spanish capital. He leads Ruud in Serve, Return and Backhand, and is only 0.1 short of the Norwegian with his Forehand score.
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) May 3, 2025
Yet Ruud will feel he has the big-stage experience, particularly on clay, to step up and challenge Draper on Sunday. Although he is the one yet to win a Masters 1000 crown, the 26-year-old is a three-time Grand Slam finalist (including twice at Roland Garros) and previously reached Masters 1000 finals in Miami (2022) and Monte-Carlo (2024).
“I feel good,” said Ruud after his semi-final triumph against Francisco Cerundolo. “Another good win for me against a tough player that I lost to earlier this year, so nice to get the revenge. To be back in a Masters 1000 final feels great. It’s not every day you get to play for these titles. I’ve been in two finals before and lost both, so hopefully there will be another third time is a charm.”
Ruud, who would become the first Norwegian champion in Masters 1000 series history (since 1990), enters Sunday’s final with a 20-6 record for 2025, a tally which includes a final appearance in Dallas. That is not enough to satisfy a player who is well-accustomed to regularly picking up ATP Tour trophies, but Ruud is hoping for a ‘reverse effect’ from his 2024 Monte-Carlo final defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I came into Monte-Carlo final playing a lot of good tennis prior to that final, and I ended up losing,” said Ruud, who will return to the Top 10 on Monday after two weeks away, regardless of whether he beats Draper. “If you look at this year, I haven’t played as good as I did in 2024, and I’m back in another final, so I’m coming in with a little different scenario here.
“If I was to win, which of course I hope and I will try my best to do, it will be kind of ironic that I had a much better beginning of 2024 leading up to Monte-Carlo than I’ve had this year. Some things are coincidental I think in tennis, and I’m not able to describe what’s different now than last year. Hopefully I can just win it this time and just think ‘third time lucky’.”
A former Nitto ATP Finals runner-up, Ruud will surge from 11th to fifth in the PIF ATP Race To Turin should he clinch the title Sunday.
