By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Alexander Zverev pulled off a massive nip-and-tuck win over Holger Rune- 4.6, 6.1, 5.7, 6.7, 6.2- to punch a quarterfinal ticket in the ongoing French Open on June 4, 2024, in Paris, France.
In just three days, Zverev had to endure two five-setter matches and won it all in closeout fashions after previously escaping Tallon Griekspoor before his win over Rune.
It wasn’t the start that Zverev dreamt against Rune after committing tons of unforced errors that allowed the latter to capitalize on every game point he could get.
Despite the strong service game Zverev had in the opening set, Rune’s counter in the long rallies as well as avoiding any break point propelled him to a dominant 1-0 lead.
Zverev answered back eventually, pulling off a lopsided second-set victory after scoring three much-needed break points to break away with a 6-1 set win.
In the next two sets, a string of courageous runs mounted Rune’s epic third-set win after getting the better of Zverev in his own game.
With the game plan of matching Zverev’s baseline attack seen as a risk, Rune proved the analysts wrong after going toe-to-toe in the ground troke exchanges.
Rune continued to boost his confidence and won most of the baseline battles, a key to his flawless performance in the final stretch of the third set.
With the momentum that Rune bagged after leading 2-1, Zverev’s veteran court mastery came at the perfect time and steered him in changing the complexion of the game.
From an error-plagued outing in the last three sets, Zverev’s newfound groove helped him tally a reverse sweep that stunned Rune.
After a tiebreaker win in the fourth set that leveled the contest at 2-2, Zverev delivered the killer blow in the fifth and final set as he replicated his second frame performance, bullying Rune with another 6-1 win.
Zverev scored a total of 163 points won against Rune and also had eight crucial break points out of his 23 chances.
With the win, Zverev just arranged an expected baseline battle with Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinal round of Roland Garros today.
