Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

Casper Ruud to Become a Father in 2026

Originally posted on Last Word On Sports
By Antonio Sepe | Last updated Sep 13, 2025 12:38 PM ET

The ATP Tour has a new father-to-be. On his Instagram account, Norway’s Casper Ruud shared that his fiancée Maria Galligani is expecting a baby. “The team is growing. See you next year, babygirl,” wrote the former World No. 2, revealing the gender of the baby.

Despite a disappointing second half of the season, Ruud had plenty of reasons to smile in 2025. After finally capturing his long-awaited first Masters 1000 title in Madrid, he struggled to build on that success. He was knocked out in the second round of the French Open and skipped the entire grass season due to a knee injury.

The North American hard-court swing was no better, as he won just three matches across Toronto, Cincinnati, and the US Open. Still, he managed to plan his wedding after proposing last November. “Since I didn’t play the grass, I had time to go for some trips to find the perfect location, and we did” he told Tennis Channel. And now, he has announced that he is going to be a father.

An Outpouring of Congratulations

Casper Ruud is one of the most liked players on the ATP Tour, so it came as no surprise that many fellow tennis stars congratulated him and his fiancée. From the new World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz to his fellow Scandinavian Holger Rune, and from Novak Djokovic to Rafa Nadal (and Nadal’s sister, Maribel, as well). Others included Denis Shapovalov, Tommy Paul, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and Tomás Martín Etcheverry.

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A post shared by Casper Ruud (@casperruud)

Former tennis stars also joined in, such as Tommy Robredo, Juan Mónaco, João Sousa, and Kim Clijsters. Fellow Norwegians celebrated too—from tennis players Ulrikke Eikeri and Malene Helgø to winter sports athletes like alpine ski racer Kajsa Vickhoff Lie and legendary cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.

A New Father on the ATP Tour

If we compare tennis with sports such as Formula 1—where, among the 20 drivers on the grid, just two (Nico Hülkenberg and Max Verstappen) are fathers—the ATP Tour is far more populated by fathers at the elite level. In the current top 10, half the players have at least one child: Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic , Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Musetti, and Karen Khachanov.

But the list of tennis fathers goes on and includes Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Bublik, Roberto Bautista Agut, Nicolás Jarry, and more. Casper Ruud is expected to join this group soon and, who knows, maybe he’ll carry on the family tradition, as his father Christian Ruud was a professional player as well. But of course there will be no pressure on the little girl on the way.

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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