At the French Open, the young stars are trumping this year. In the shadow of tennis prodigy Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Casper Ruud also made it into the quarter-finals. One of them will even make it to the semifinals.
The day before Super Tuesday with the tennis crackers between Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz as well as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, two up-and-coming young stars caused a sensation at the French Open. 19-year-old Holger Rune from Denmark and 23-year-old Casper Ruud from Norway advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time in their careers at a Grand Slam tournament on Monday at the Stade Roland Garros. One of them will even make it to the semifinals as Rune and Ruud meet on Wednesday.
Rune transforms first match point
Rune’s victory in particular came as a surprise. The Dane won his round of 16 against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7: 5, 3: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4 and thus ended the title dream of the fourth in the world rankings. Last year, Tsitsipas was in the final in Paris and lost to Djokovic after a 2-0 set lead.
“I’m so happy to be further in the tournament,” said Rune after his strong performance on the Philippe Chatrier court. “I was so nervous at the end, but I made it,” said the Dane, who won the ATP tournament in Munich a month ago, beating Zverev in the process. Rune converted his first match point against Tsitsipas after 3:01 hours.