Casper Ruud has extra motivation to beat Jannik Sinner in the Italian Open final.
Sinner is in the top form of his life right now. He has won the past four ATP Tournaments he has competed in this year and typically dominated whoever he's facing.
What's more, Italy is his home country, whichBut these fans likely would not have said the same about Casper Ruud, who is Sinner's opponent in the Italian Open final on May 17.. While he has been as highly ranked as No. 2 at one point, he hasn't been in the same form for the past several years, which is why he has fallen in the rankings.
But Ruud is still very talented when he's on form, as shown by his advancing to this Italian Open final. Casper Ruud and Wife Maria Galligani Share Wholesome Family News Before Italian Open Final Ruud has a great support system on his side. He has been dating Maria Galligani since 2018, and the couple got married in 2025. Ruud and Galligani also revealed in September of 2025 that they were expecting a baby.
And while they kept relatively quiet about this throughout the winter, this changed in a major way with an X post that Ruud made on February 1 of 2026. With Ruud now back in the spotlight because he's competing against Sinner in the Italian Open, his being a new father is sparking a lot of buzz, if only because it might give him the extra motivation necessary to stop Galligani keeps her social media accounts private, and she hasn't been spotted at the Italian Open to this point.
And given that she's nursing a newborn baby while Ruud is providing for the family, one can't blame Galligani if she wasn't able to make it to Italy to support her husband in person. There's no doubt that she's watching Ruud competing on TV, wherever she and their child are at. And maybe she'll manage to make an appearance at the French Open later this month.
Grant Young covers the Athlete Lifestyle, Women’s Basketball, the New York Mets, the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago Cubs, and boxing for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco , where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years.
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