Defending champion Casper Ruud made a ruthless start to his Madrid Open campaign on Saturday, sweeping past Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-0, 6-1 in the second round at the Caja Mágica. The Norwegian needed just one hour and five minutes to complete one of the most one-sided wins of the tournament so far, giving Munar little room to settle in front of the home crowd.
Ruud, who is defending the title he won in Madrid last year, controlled the match from the opening game. He broke repeatedly, kept his errors low and never allowed Munar to build any sustained pressure.
Munar had reached the second round after defeating Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko, but he found few answers against a player who looked sharp from the first ball. Ruud raced through the opening set without dropping a game, then closed out the second with the same steady baseline control.
The victory sends Ruud into a third-round meeting with Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who defeated compatriot Pablo Carreño Busta 6-3, 6-3 earlier in the day. Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo also advanced to the third round, beating Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 6-1, 7-5.
Cerúndolo dominated the first set and appeared headed for a routine finish before Hanfmann pushed back in the second. The German recovered from two service breaks to level at 5-5, but Cerúndolo responded immediately, breaking again before serving out the match.
Cerúndolo will next face Italy’s Luciano Darderi, who defeated Juan Manuel Cerúndolo 6-1, 6-3 in his own second-round match. Darderi’s win denied Madrid a meeting between the Cerúndolo brothers and instead set up a third-round clash with Francisco Cerúndolo.
Russia’s Karen Khachanov also moved through, defeating Australia’s Adam Walton 6-2, 6-3. The win keeps Khachanov safely into the third round as the men’s draw begins to take shape in Madrid. Elsewhere, Jakub Mensik continued his run with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over American qualifier Martin Damm, adding another name to a busy day of second-round results.
On the women’s side, Belinda Bencic defeated Diana Shnaider 6-2, 7-6(6), while Mirra Andreeva advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Dalma Galfi. But the clearest statement of the day came from Ruud, whose title defense began with authority. After lifting his first Masters 1000 trophy in Madrid last year, the Norwegian returned to the Spanish capital looking ready to protect it.
