373 days after his Achilles injury, Rune edges Halys in Basel for first ATP win
Holger Rune ended a 373-day wait for an ATP Tour victory on Monday, edging Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel after the Frenchman had come back from 1-5 to 5-5 in the deciding tiebreak. The Dane, back from an Achilles injury, next meets Hubert Hurkacz (No. 10) or Zizou Bergs.
Holger Rune, Basel 2026 | © Action Plus / PsNewz
For 373 days, Holger Rune’s last ATP Tour victory had belonged to another season. On Monday evening in Basel, he finally brought a new one into the present, and it took three sets, two tiebreaks and a final tiebreak that almost got away from him. The Dane edged out Frenchman Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) to reach the last 16 of the Swiss Indoors Basel, his first ATP win since returning from an Achilles injury.
His previous ATP victory had carried him into the semifinals in Stockholm in October 2025. The Achilles injury he suffered there kept the former world No. 4 off the tour for 11 months.
Before Monday, his only wins since his return had come in the Davis Cup in September, where he beat Grigor Dimitrov and No. 596 Radulov for Denmark.
Rune’s great stats in Basel
The decisive moments came at the very end. Rune raced to a 5-1 lead in the final-set tiebreak, then watched Halys win four straight points to draw level at 5-5. The Dane took the next two, converting his first match point.
The third set had been tight on both serves. Halys saved two break points while serving at 1-2, and Rune had to save one at 3-3 and another at 5-5 before moving 6-5 ahead.
Rune had taken the opening set with a break at 3-3, then saved a break point as he served it out at 5-4. The second set produced no break point at all, and Halys dominated the tiebreak, dropping only two points to force a decider.
It was the third meeting between the two men, and Rune has now won all three. Their first two encounters both went five sets: Rune came from two sets down to win 1-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the third round of Wimbledon in 2024, then prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 at the same stage of Roland-Garros in 2025.
Hurkacz or Bergs next
Halys, who turned 30 on Monday, was looking to become the third Frenchman to reach 25 wins this season after Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert. The world No. 45, a career high, is now 0-2 in Basel and 1-8 on indoor hard courts at tour level since the start of 2025.
Rune, a finalist in 2022 when he lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 7-5, has now won 11 of his 14 matches in Basel, where he reached at least the semifinals in each of his three previous appearances from 2022 to 2024. He will face Pole Hubert Hurkacz, seed No. 10, or Belgian Zizou Bergs for a place in the quarterfinals.
