"This is honestly better than winning the Australian Open" – Tennis fans react to Casper Ruud's reunion with his dog after Melbourne trip

Casper Ruud's reunion with his dog after his Australian Open campaign has made several tennis fans happy.

Ruud's fifth main draw appearance at the Australian Open didn't last as long as he would have liked. He managed to go past Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Australia's Max Purcell in the first and second rounds respectively, but failed to beat Cameron Norrie in the third.

Before flying to Melbourne, Ruud competed in Sydney while representing Norway at the United Cup 2024, which began on December 29, 2023. Therefore, he had to stay away from his Shih Tzu named Bajas for nearly a month.

After concluding his Australian Open duties, Ruud returned home to Bajas, who sprinted and jumped across in elation at seeing him. The moment, which was captured in a video by one of Ruud's family members, has warmed the hearts of tennis fans on Reddit.

"This is honestly better than winning the Australian Open imo," one fan wrote.

"As an animal lover myself, this is one of those sacrifices that must be hard for pro athletes who need to constantly travel. I would hate having to be away from them constantly," wrote another.

A third fan chimed in, saying:

"The dog doesn’t care that he’s not a grand slam winner, just unconditional love. We don’t deserve dogs!"

Fans react to Casper Ruud's reunion with his dog named Bajas.

Here are a few more reactions from Reddit:

Reactions from Reddit

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Fourth-round finish in 2021 remains Casper Ruud's best result at Australian Open

Casper Ruud walks off Margaret Court Arena: Australian Open 2024

Back in 2021, Casper Ruud made it as far as the fourth round at the Australian Open with wins over Jordan Thompson, Tommy Paul and Radu Albot.

Ruud made his main draw debut in the men's singles event at Melbourne Park in 2018, a year after failing in the third round of qualifiers. In 2018, he began in the qualifying draw and continued till he lost to Argentina's Diego Schwartzman in the second round.

The Norwegian failed once again in the qualifiers in 2019, losing in the first round. He directly qualified for the main draw for the first time in 2020, but crashed out in the first round itself.

Casper Ruud missed the 2022 Australian Open due to an ankle injury. He returned the following year as the second seed but fell in the second round.