Casper Ruud makes winning return to Wimbledon, reveals harrowing Roland Garros parasite

Casper Ruud’s symbiotic relationship with Roland Garros took a parasitic turn in the most literal sense, the former world No. 2 revealing the depths of a gastrointestinal illness that plagued him for nearly two weeks following his semifinal defeat to Alexander Zverev.

“I went home the day after and kept feeling quite bad for a full week and decided to take a few tests after a week of almost, like, lying in bed all the time. I had no appetite, and I was still bothered,” Ruud recalled after a winning return at Wimbledon, where he defeated Australian Alex Bolt, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.

“I took some tests and found out that I had this kind of uncommon small parasite that I had been infected with through not sure where. The most kind of normal place where you can get infected from it is through just unclean water.

“So, if you are unlucky, you get a drop of shower water on your lips and through there or through…most likely vegetable, fruit, or salad being washed with unclean water. It can take up to 12 days before it kicks in and you feel symptoms, so it's very difficult to know where I got it.”

Once recovered, he made the potentially risky decision to return to Paris for the Vogue World event at Place Vendôme before returning to the All England Club for his pre-Wimbledon prep.

“I was mostly in bed for…10, 11 days, which was not what I was kind of hoping for,” explained the two-time Roland Garros runner-up, who looked visibly distressed in his four-set loss to Zverev, whom he’d handily beaten in the same round a year prior.

“I rested well, that's for sure, but it wasn't ideal. I've kind of regained my strength and been practicing in London since last Tuesday. I didn't do much between Paris and coming here. It took a while to get this thing away.”

Ruud had initially been optimistic about playing a fuller grass-court swing but made up for lost time against Bolt, the No. 8 seed striking 18 aces and 45 winners to advance in two hours and 13 minutes on No. 3 Court.

“I did obviously kind of think, you know, if this keeps on going on for too long, Wimbledon might be at risk, but I got good follow-up and help from the doctors at home,” said Ruud, who noted the rareness of such an infection in Norway.

“It was still a good run for me in Paris. Just a bit unfortunate that I started feeling it there and that I wasn't able to play any golf for the days to follow,” he added with a laugh.

Wimbledon remains Ruud’s least successful major tournament, the only one where he is yet to make the second week. He will have a chance to reach the third round for the first time against former world No. 9 Fabio Fognini, who defeated lucky loser Luca Van Assche in four sets on Monday (Ruud leads 3-0).