Holger Rune edged Francisco Cerundolo in a final set tiebreak to reach his second straight French Open quarterfinal at Roland-Garros, Paris on Monday.
Sixth-seeded Dane Rune beat 23rd-seeded Argentine Cerundolo 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(7) in three hours 59 minutes to set up a quarterfinal rematch with Casper Ruud, last year’s runner-up.
The match involved a controversial moment during the fourth game of the third set when Rune hit the ball on a double bounce. Cerundolo stopped playing, expecting the umpire to award the point to him. On the contrary, the play continued and the Argentine, who was called for hindrance when he stopped, dropped serve.
The 20-year-old Rune, the only Danish man to reach the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros, was in a spot of bother at 3-4, 0-40 down in the fifth set but somehow held serve and broke his 24-year-old opponent in the next game.
Cerundolo, playing in fourth round of a Major for the first time in his career, broke Rune back while he was serving for the match. However, the Dane put the ghosts of a heartbreaking final set tiebreak at this year’s quarterfinal to Andrey Rublev behind him and managed to beat the South American despite trailing 3-5 at one point.
“I definitely learned something from Australia earlier this year where I lost this kind of match in a (fifth set) match tiebreak at the end,” said Rune.
“I told myself in the beginning of the match tiebreak (today) just to enjoy the moment, try to play my tennis.”
“At least go off the court with a smile on my face, because I played a good match. Because if you think too much about winning and losing you start to be tight and it hurts.”
Rune is just the second Danish man in history to reach multiple Grand Slam tournament quarterfinals (or better), following Kurt Nielsen, who achieved the feat four times (1953 and 1955 Wimbledon finals, 1958 semifinal and 1953 US Championships quarterfinal).
In last year’s quarterfinal, Ruud had beaten Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3. After the loss, Rune had told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that his opponent had shouted at him. “The team is really nice and sweet, but then he [Ruud] goes straight to me and shouts ‘Ja!’ straight up in my face,” he said.
Remembering that match after the win on Monday, Rune said, “Obviously I lost last year and it is going to be the same scenario, we play in a quarter-final, maybe night session again, maybe not.
“Hopefully I can turn it around and make it different this year.
“Obviously there was drama last year and I hope we can make less drama this year,” he said. “He’s a good player. I respect him. There’s no problem. We’re good.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
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