Roland-Garros: Rune reaches quarters for second year in a row after fifth-set tiebreak win over Cerundolo

Denmark’s Holger Rune, the No 6 seed, scored his first career five-set win as he defeated Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, the No 23 seed, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7) to move into the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros for the second year in a row.

Rune, who lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January to Andrey Rublev in a fifth-set tiebreak, served for the match at 5-4 in the decider only to see Cerundolo fight back to 5-5.

3 hours and 59 minutes later 🦁#RolandGarros | @holgerrune2003 pic.twitter.com/5gG9pvz383

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2023

“It was tough,” Rune assured. “It was super close match; very long match; long rallies. You know, he played well. He played a very good tournament, so he made it difficult for me so I had to dig deep — which I did find solutions.

“I came a lot to the net at the end and I think that was the key for me to win.”

Rune, ranked No 6, will play fellow Scandinavian Casper Ruud, the No 4 seed from Norway, next in a repeat of their tense quarter-final last year. Ruud won that match — which ended in a cold handshake and a post-match war of words — and leads their head-to-head 4-1. However, Rune won their most recent match which came in the Rome Masters semi-finals last month.

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Tennis Majors

Ahead of his win today, the 20-year-old Dane defeated American Christopher Eubanks (6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2), Frenchman Gael Monfils (walkover) and Argentine qualifier Genaro Alberto Olivieri (6-4, 6-1, 6-3).

Cerundolo, ranked No 23, beat Spaniard Jaume Munar (6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1), German lucky loser Yannick Hanfmann (6-3, 6-3, 6-4) and American Taylor Fritz, the No 9 seed (3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5) in the previous rounds.

Roland-Garros (Grand Slam), other fourth round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49,600,000)

• Casper Ruud beat Nicolas Jarry: 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (5) beat Sebastian Ofner (Q): 7-5, 6-3, 6-0
• Carlos Alcaraz (1) beat Lorenzo Musetti (17): 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
• Novak Djokovic (3) beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
• Karen Khachanov (11) beat Lorenzo Sonego: 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-1
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Alexander Zverev

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