Casper Ruud issues apology immediately after lifting Madrid Open trophy

Casper Ruud immediately issued an apology after . The No. 14 seed beat Jack Draper 7-5 3-6 6-4 in Sunday's final to clinch the biggest title of his career. Afterwards, he joined the Sky Sports team for a post-match interview, where he said sorry to the British pundits and viewers.

The 26-year-old was full of kind words for Draper after the two-hour and 29-minute clash, branding him a "threat" on any surface. But Ruud admitted that he had to remind himself he was the more experienced clay-court player in order to get the job done.

Draper had looked unstoppable throughout the fortnight in Madrid. Both he and Ruud reached the final without dropping a set, and the Norwegian star knew he had his work cut out for him.

But Ruud produced one of the best performances of his career to get his hands on the trophy, denying Draper a second Masters crown in less than two months.

While he was delighted with the result, the world No. 15 was well aware that the British public would be disappointed with Draper's result. And he promptly apologised for beating their man in the championship match.

"Sorry to spoil the British party here tonight, but it was, first of all, an incredible match," the newly-crowned champion said on Sky Sports.

"Jack has been kind of wiping everyone on the floor here in Madrid I knew if I didn't bring my A+ game tonight, it will be really tough. Luckily, I think I did play really well throughout the whole match."

Despite being the lower-ranked player in the final, Ruud was more experienced on the clay. A two-time runner-up at the French Open, he already had 11 titles on the surface, but he was impressed with Draper's raped improvement.

He continued: "I said on the podium, Jack has become now a threat on any surface. If you look at his career before Madrid, his bigger results had been hard-court or grass.

"But now he's played so well here in Madrid and shown that he can be a threat and understand the surface. Not like he was a bad clay court player before but he's really taken a big step."

"There's no holes in his clay-court game either and I think he will become more and more difficult to play here because results like this will make you better, make you believe more and have good confidence."

While Ruud predicts big things for Draper, he wanted to show the world No. 6 who was boss at the Caja Magica.

"I was just thinking, 'I'm the clay court player here. I've played more hours on clay than him, he's obviously great but this is kind of my surface and come on, it's time to back that up!'" he smiled.

There's no rest for the wicked as Ruud will now head straight to Rome for the next Masters 1000 event, but the world No. 15 is planning to celebrate before turning his attention to the Italian Open.

"There's not much time in this sport as we know. I'll try to enjoy tonight," he said.

"In Spain, they like to stay up late, so I'm sure there will be some good options. Tomorrow I'll be on the plane to Rome."