Spaniard Munar caught Ruud out of rhythm almost from the first ball and ended up winning comfortably on the open field in Tokyo. Munar is number 58 in the world and occasionally shows plays that warrant further ranking increases.

Ruud’s Asia tour has not been a success. He lost in the quarter-finals in Seoul, South Korea last week. On Tuesday came the first defeat against Munar in his career. Ruud is the first seed in the tournament in Japan.

Ruud struggled in the first set and was broken on his own serve twice in a row. Ruud made a few mistakes, while Munar had no problems in his own serve play. At 1-5 for the Spaniard, Ruud returned to action and broke back, but got into trouble again when he had to reduce the deficit to 3-5.

– It’s one of the worst things we’ve seen from Casper so far this season, first set here, said Discovery commentator Ola Bentzen.

In the second set, Ruud was immediately broken again. The Norwegian played a break ball and was able to reply, but Munar was 3-1 ahead.

Ruud showed the better trend and drew 3-3, but abused three break points in a row. The 25-year-old made a few mistakes and kept the ball in play, while Ruud wasn’t right, and Munar could celebrate the biggest scalp of his career.

Ruud had met Munar twice before on the ATP tour. Both matches were played on clay, and both times Ruud won. Most recently in the quarter-finals at Gstaad in Switzerland this summer, where Ruud ended up winning the entire tournament. This time the Spaniard took revenge on Ruud who had not shown his best game since the Laver Cup.

Last week it ended the quarter-finals in South Korea for Ruud. It brought him down one place to world number 3.