Ninth seed Rune battles back to beat Comesana for place in third round

Dane Holger Rune, the No 9 seed, advanced to the third round of the Rome Masters by edging out Argentinian Francisco Comesana 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Foro Italico on Friday.

Surprised in the opening set, the Dane broke in the fourth game of the second to calm his nerves and from then on, the result was rarely, if ever, in doubt.

“I started so very slow, but I’m happy that I I found a way”, Rune said to the reporters after the match. “Comesana was a very tricky player player that I haven’t played before. So it took a little bit of time to adapt to his game style, but once I found my rhythm, I I started playing better and on my own terms. It was a big battle in quite slow conditions, so I’m happy to go through.”

“First rounds are always difficult”, Rune added. “No matter if you’re coming for a good winning streak or whatever, it’s always, a new place. The game is being played always a little bit differently because the conditions are different. But, again, I’m just happy to go through. Now I can build match by match.”

“I haven’t played a match since Barcelona (18 days ago, editor’s note)”, Rune recalled, after his withdrawal in Madrid. “So I was just, going with the flow, trying to find my rhythm again and it got better in the third set. I’m just looking forward to build on.”

Rune, ranked No 10, will face Frenchman Corentin Moutet next.

In the previous round of the Italian Open, Comesana, ranked No 63, defeated German Daniel Altmaier (6-1, 7-5).

Roma Masters 1000, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 8.055.385, most recent results first):

• Jannik Sinner vs. Mariano Navone
• Luca Nardi vs. Alex De Minaur
• Ben Shelton vs. Jaume Munar
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Thiago Seyboth Wild
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Jesper De Jong vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Jakub Mensik vs. Matteo Gigante
• Pedro Martinez Portero vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Taylor Fritz vs. Marcos Giron
• Alexander Bublik vs. Casper Ruud
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Sebastian Korda
• Sebastian Ofner vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Learner Tien vs. Tomas Machac
• Tommy Paul vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Fabian Marozsan vs. Andrey Rublev
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Jacob Fearnley
• Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs. Alexander Zverev
• Jack Draper (5) beat Luciano Darderi: 6-1, 6-4
• Vilius Gaubas (Q) beat Denis Shapovalov (27): 6-3, 6-4
• Vit Kopriva (Q) beat Sebastian Baez (32): 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Corentin Moutet beat Ugo Humbert (21): 6-3, 4-0 ret.
• Daniil Medvedev (10) beat Cameron Norrie (LL): 6-4, 6-2
• Laslo Djere beat Alex Michelsen (31): 6-0, 6-3
• Lorenzo Musetti (8) beat Otto Virtanen (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (18) beat Alexandre Muller: 6-2, 7-6 (3)
• Carlos Alcaraz (3) beat Dusan Lajovic (Q): 6-3, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin (24) beat Carlos Taberner (Q): 6-1, 7-6 (4)
• Arthur Fils (13) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-2, 6-2
• Karen Khachanov (23) beat Roman Andres Burruchaga (Q): 6-4, 5-7, 6-1
• Francesco Passaro (WC) beat Grigor Dimitrov (14): 7-5, 6-3
• Jordan Thompson vs. Brandon Nakashima