Casper Ruud Withdraws from U.S. Open: A Season in Turmoil
Casper Ruud arrived in New York already limping through his hard-court summer. On Sunday, the problems caught up with him.
The world No. 20 withdrew from the U.S. Open before striking a ball in singles, pulling out of his first-round match against Juan Manuel Cerúndolo with a lingering back injury that has shadowed him since mid-August. Tournament organizers confirmed the withdrawal, with lucky loser Arthur Gea stepping into Ruud’s spot in the men’s draw.
For a player who stood at No. 2 in the world just four years ago, it felt like another jolt in a career that has veered sharply away from its once-steady ascent.
A Back That Wouldn’t Let Go
The first warning shot came in Cincinnati on August 16. Ruud led Christopher O’Connell 5-2 in the opening set, then suddenly stalled. A medical timeout for lower-back pain followed, and he retired trailing 7-5, 1-2, according to French daily L’Équipe.
On Instagram, he explained the abrupt end: he had “tweaked” his back in practice the day before and could no longer move freely.
The issue never truly cleared. Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that the trouble first flared in mid-August, and by Sunday morning in New York, Ruud’s name had disappeared from the official order of play. The decision to withdraw confirmed what the practice courts had already hinted.
He tried to manage it. The back held up just long enough for him to complete a mixed doubles run at Flushing Meadows, partnering Diana Shnaider after Iga Swiatek pulled out of the event to rest. Ruud and Shnaider upset Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz in the first round and then pushed Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev in a tight quarterfinal before bowing out.
The singles prospects were far less encouraging.
On August 27, cameras caught Ruud cutting short a practice session with Tomás Martín Etcheverry after roughly 50 minutes. A social media post cited by Tennis365 reporter Richie Mills described a worrying scene: Ruud “couldn’t serve,” and even routine groundstrokes brought “considerable pain.”
From there, the clock to the U.S. Open first round ticked down, but the back never cooperated.
From World No. 2 to an Uncertain Autumn
Ruud entered this U.S. Open seeded 19th, drawn into the same quarter as Alexander Zverev, according to injury tracker RotoWire. On paper, it was a respectable position for a player still just 27, born December 22, 1998, in Oslo, and long regarded as the standard-bearer of Norwegian tennis.
The rankings tell a harsher story. Ruud sits at No. 20 this week, ESPN data shows, a steep slide from his peak of No. 2 on September 12, 2022, the day after he reached the U.S. Open final. He spent 113 consecutive weeks inside the top 10 between September 2021 and November 2023, a run that cemented him as the highest-ranked Norwegian player in history and the first Norwegian man to win an ATP title, reach a Grand Slam final, and qualify for the ATP Finals, according to his U.S. Open profile.
His résumé still carries heavyweight lines. He owns 14 ATP singles titles, 12 of them on clay, including last year’s Madrid Masters. In Monte-Carlo in 2024, he stunned Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in the semifinals, his first career win over a world No. 1 and the first time any Norwegian had beaten a top-ranked player in ATP rankings history.
He also owns a notable win over Carlos Alcaraz, a 6-1, 7-5 victory in the ATP Finals 2024 group stage — his lone success in six meetings with the Spaniard.
Yet the body has begun to interrupt the narrative just as often as the tennis. The back issue now joins an injury file that isn’t extensive by tour standards but is starting to feel familiar. An ankle problem forced him out of the 2022 Australian Open. A painful left knee hampered him during a 2025 French Open defeat to Nuno Borges. Now the back, again, at a major.
A Season Stalled
Even before the withdrawal, a deep run in New York felt like a stretch. Ruud arrived with a 25-16 record on the year and no titles in 2026. His hard-court form had sagged badly, highlighted by a third-round loss to João Fonseca in Toronto.
Since that 2022 U.S. Open final, his best showings in New York have been a fourth-round and a second-round exit. This year was supposed to be a chance to steady the ship, to show that his slide out of the top 10 was a dip, not a direction.
Instead, the back gave out, and the questions multiplied.
Ruud is still coached by his father, former pro Christian Ruud, the family partnership that helped push him from promising junior to multiple-time major finalist and Masters champion. The tools that once drove him to the sport’s summit have not vanished. But as he walks away from another Grand Slam without a singles match played, the focus shifts to something more basic than tactics or confidence.
How long will this back linger, and how much more of his 2026 season will it take?
