Casper Ruud – The Sports Fan Project

**^{Our podcast, Conversations with Sports Fans, is about}**
**^{to celebrate its fourth birthday so we figured let’s go}**
**^{back to when Conversations was still a rumor.}**
**^{What’s happening here?}**

As noted in this week’s #FanTeaser clue, the Teaser is flashing back to the time of The Sports Fan Project‘s podcast – Conversations with Sports Fans – birth: June 2022.

On the Sunday leading into that initial Conversation, then-36-year-old Spaniard Rafael Nadal won his record 14th French Open men’s single’s title in straight sets over 23-year-old Norwegian Casper Ruud, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.

Casper Ruud, left, and Rafael Nadal in 2022 — **^{Norway’s Casper Ruud, left, congratulates Spain’s Rafael Nadal following the pair’s 2022 French Open Men’s Singles Championship, won by Nadal 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. (Photo by Agence France-Presse)}**

Not only did Nadal continue to flex his dominance on the famed red clay of Roland-Garros, it also marked his 22nd all-time Grand Slam Championship which was then the record. Novak Djokovic equalled the mark early in 2023 at the Australian Open before breaking Nadal’s record in Paris that summer. Djokovic added the U.S. Open in September of 2023 and now owns the record with 24 Grand Slam Championships.

Nadal paid one more visit to Roland-Garros in 2024 (he had to withdraw in 2023 due to injury) and was defeated in the opening round by German Alexander Zverev.

With that Nadal left Paris with an all-time Roland-Garros record of 112-4.

Truly, mind-boggling dominance in the venue.

^{Here is match point from Rafael Nadal’s 14th and final French Open Championship from this week in 2022.}

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.