Ruud on Sinner: ‘But when you go trial, there is, I mean, if you go to trial, there’s always a risk that you might be found guilty, even if you aren’t guilty’

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: I just saw your tweets a few days ago about a quote that wasn’t accurate but was attributed to you, about Jannik Sinner and his penalty. And you said you hadn’t read the report. And so a few days later, I just want to ask for your actual thoughts on what’s been going on, because it’s obviously been a big story atop men’s tennis right now.

Casper Ruud: Yeah. I think… I feel sorry for Jannik. He’s, in my view, not done anything intentionally.

And, you know, it is not the first time it has happened—but it doesn’t happen often—that settlements happen in a potential doping sentence, which was probably surprising for a few people.

When you look at the [legal system], it’s not unusual that it happens when someone is about to go to trial. I mean, there’s many other cases where settlements happened just before a trial.

So, my understanding, if I was in Jannik’s shoes, of course I would love to have the possibility to defend myself in an open trial, which I’m sure he was going for. But when you go trial, there is—if I try to put myself in his shoes—I mean, if you go to trial, there’s always a risk that you might be found guilty, even if you aren’t guilty, if the juries or the judges see things in a different way. I mean, look at how many cases in the world someone has gone to jail when he wasn’t guilty, or she wasn’t guilty. So, I mean, there’s always a risk that you might be found guilty even though you aren’t.

So, a settlement of three months—or a suspension of three months—was something that both were happy to do. Still, I feel sorry for Jannik. He will be out, he will miss 4 out of 9 Masters 1000s for something he didn’t intentionally do.

So I hope he keeps his head high. Me personally, I’m always rooting for him. I think it’s a joy to watch him play, and I hope the three months go by quickly for him. Yeah, it’s just sad for him, and tennis as a sport, when the World No. 1 goes through something like this.

And, yeah, I guess that’s kind of my thought about it at the moment, yeah.

All Photos by ©Luce Martini