"I'll try to fight in the last couple of weeks" - Casper Ruud keeping 'head held high' as 2023 ATP Finals hopes dwindle with Tokyo upset

Casper Ruud may have faced a setback at the 2023 Japan Open, but he won’t give up on ending his season on a high, with the ATP Finals on the horizon.

On Wednesday, October 18, he suffered a shock loss to World No. 79 Marcos Giron in the second round of the ATP 500 Japan Open in Tokyo. Ruud, the second seed at the event, earned a 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory over home hope Yosuke Watanuki in the opening round. He, however, went down 3-6, 4-6 against Giron.

Ruud reflected on the upset and suggested that the American outsmarted him with his strategy.

"I tried to play the same level as I did yesterday - maybe I wasn't able to but it's OK, it's not always easy to shift from one day to the other with different opponents," Ruud said, as per Eurosport. "I wasn't able to be ready enough for his game and counter his game."

Highlighting the positives, he noted that his campaign in Tokyo this season was more encouraging than last season’s first-round defeat to Spain’s Jaume Munar.

“I think it went better than last year so what can you say, I played better than last year, for sure,” he added.

The Norwegian, however, admitted that he was hoping for a better result given his dire need for ranking points ahead of the 2023 ATP Finals in Turin.

"Maybe not what I was really hoping for and kind of what I needed,” Casper Ruud confessed.

Ruud further stated that he will try his best to battle it out on the courts, with his work cut out for the next couple of weeks ahead of the final qualification for Turin.

“But there's still a couple of weeks to go and I'll keep my head high and try to fight in the last couple of weeks of the year,” the former World No. 2 said.

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Casper Ruud locked in a tight battle with Holger Rune and Taylor Fritz for a spot in the 2023 ATP Finals

Casper Ruud at the 2023 Shanghai Masters

Casper Ruud has enjoyed decent success in the ATP Finals in the last couple of seasons. The three-time Grand Slam runner-up made his debut in Turin in 2021. He made it as far as the semifinals in that edition. In 2022, Ruud did one better, finishing as the runner-up against Novak Djokovic.

This time around, however, with a massive 800 points on the line, he faces a real threat of missing out on the top eight spots.

While Ruud lifted one title at the Estoril Open and made a big splash at the 2023 French Open, repeating his final appearance from 2022, he has otherwise had a below-par season. Currently ranked World No. 8, the Norwegian is listed 10th in the live race to the ATP Finals.

With only four of the eight spots up for grabs, thanks to the selection of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud will be seen scrambling for the spot in his upcoming tournaments – the Swiss Indoors Basel and the Paris Masters.

He is locked in a tight battle with Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, and Hubert Hurkacz, who are placed in the eighth, ninth, and 11th positions, respectively.

Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Alexander Zverev, who have yet to qualify, currently stand comfortably in the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots, respectively.