By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Thursday, May 30, 2024
Potential title contenders Casper Ruud and Holger Rune survived in five sets to reach the third round.
Photo credit: Getty
Survive and advance.
That was the mission for two men considered contenders for this year’s Roland Garros title. Both Casper Ruud and Holger Rune battled through tough five set victories to find themselves in the third round of the clay court major.
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No. 7 seed Ruud, who reached the Roland Garros final last year, found himself competing through five sets against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The back and forth contest saw Ruud barely take the first set in a tense tiebreak 7-6(5). Davidovich Fokina, currently ranked World No. 32, but who just missed being seeded in Paris, then raced through the second set 6-1 and thus set the tone that this second round match would be a tight one.
Both men split the third and fourth sets, it came down to the decider. Ruud earned an early service break in the fifth set. But the three-time major finalist was forced by his opponent to come up with the goods to maintain his advantage.
After over four hours, Ruud managed to secure the hard fought 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win putting him into the third round.
Ruud spoke to the crowd afterwards who stayed to watch the match at night after multiple rain delays earlier in the day.
“First of all thank you to everyone who came. Thank you for staying late. I know it’s been a long day with a lot of rain. “It’s been the same for me and a lot of players. I hope it was worth it to stay late and at least watch some tennis.”
When asked about his year so far, Ruud added, “It’s been a very good year so far. Much better than last year. Here last year I reached the final which was a turning point in the year for me. It was a great result for me. I love coming back here and playing at Roland Garros. The match today is the kind of match you work hard for in order to be ready and hopefully win it. Today I’m going to sleep well.”
Ruud next faces No. 28 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
Another big seed who had to go the distance in his second round match was No. 13 seed Holger Rune.
Rune appeared ready to make it an easy day for himself after he soared to a two sets to love lead over World No. 53 Flavio Cobolli of Italy.
Yet Cobolli proved he was ready for the fight. Cobolli would claim the next two sets to force a pivotal fifth set under the lights on Court 14. When the final set entered a match tiebreaker, all bets were off as the crowd seemed more in favor of Cobolli than his higher ranked opponent. <
The crowd support helped Cobolli as he jumped out to quick 5-0 lead. Cobolli would soon lead 6-2 and seemed on the verge of pulling off the upset. Yet Rune dug in and battled back to 6-all.
Eventually, Rune found a way to surge past his opponent and take the tiebreak and the match 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6(7).
Rune next faces Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia.
In total, 55 singles matches were completed on Thursday in Paris, as the second round in both men's and women' singles was completed. Rain has delayed play with consistency throughout the first five days of main draw play, and more is expected on Friday.
Photo Credit: Getty Images