Holger Rune beats Francisco Cerundolo to advance to Roland Garros quarterfinals

The central event of the ninth day of the French Open, which continues in Paris, was the meeting of the sixth racket of the world Dane Holger Rune with Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in the 1/8 finals. It took the top contender from the bottom half of the bracket five sets and 3 hours and 59 minutes to get through to the next round. From the Roland Garros stadium – Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov.

After Daniil Medvedev sensationally left Roland Garros already in the first round, two Scandinavians became the favorites in the fight for a place in the final from the bottom half of the grid – Norwegian Kasper Ruud and Dane Holger Rune. Moreover, the chances of the 20-year-old Rune were quoted higher, despite his youth and the fact that a year ago Ruud had already reached the final in Paris.

The Danish tennis player passed the first three rounds without any problems, especially since in the 1/32 finals his opponent Frenchman Gael Monfils could not enter the court due to a wrist injury. No global difficulties were expected for Rune in the 1/8 finals match against the Argentinean Francisco Serundolo. Although clay is the best surface for the South American, the Dane is in the top five this season.

“Of course I believe I can,” Rune said when asked Saturday if he was capable of winning Roland Garros this year. match after match.

However, on Monday, the same age as the first racket of the world, Carlos Alcaras, who, by the way, is only a week younger than the Dane, had a tough test. For almost four hours, Serundolo showed incredible perseverance. The culmination of the match was the end of the fifth installment. In the ninth game, Rune took his serve, but lost his in the tenth, losing in two draws of 14 hits. As a result, the matter ended with a super tie-break up to ten points, in which the Argentine took the lead – 5:3, but out of the ten remaining draws, including due to bad luck, he took only two. The result of this match, which lasted 3 hours and 59 minutes, was 7:6 (7:3), 3:6, 6:4, 1:6, 7:6 (10:7).

Rune, who spent a lot of strength over the next two days, needs to recover as best as possible. After all, his next opponent will be just Kasper Ruud. This year is not going well for Ruud so far. According to the points earned since the beginning of the year, he is still only twelfth. True, the Norwegian approached his favorite Grand Slam tournament in good condition. On his account – two victories in three and four sets, and the tall (198 cm) Chilean athlete Nicholas Harry, who in the second round outplayed the 16th seeded American Tommy Paul, he defeated, albeit in a big fight, but very confidently – 7 :6 (7:3), 7:5, 7:5.

The balance of power between Rune and Ruud now seems to be roughly equal.

Last year, Ruud outplayed Rune just at the quarterfinal stage of Roland Garros. However, he has since improved a lot, and in this case, the Norwegian can rather count not on a psychological advantage, but on the fact that the Dane spent too much energy on Monday.

Meanwhile, the participants of the 1/4 finals in the upper half of the women’s bracket were determined. At this stage, the first racket of the world, Pole Iga Sventek, whose rival Ukrainian Lesya Tsurenko withdrew for medical reasons in the middle of the first game, will play with American Coco Gauff, who outplayed Slovak Anna Karolina Shmiedlova – 7:5, 6:2. This will be an early repeat of the Paris final, in which Sventek took over a year ago. Another pair of quarter-finalists were Brazilian Beatriz Addad Maya, who fought Spaniard Sarah Sorribes Torno for 3 hours 51 minutes and won – 6:7 (3:7), 6:3, 7:5, and Uns Jabir from Tunisia, who easily dealt with the American Bernard Peroy – 6:3, 6:1.