Holger Rune battled past Roman Safiulin 6-4 2-6 6-1 to reach the second round at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam. Rune returned to the court for his first match since he retired in Montpellier due to a hand injury. Rune fired 31 winners, including 9 aces.
Safiulin saved three break points to hold serve after four deuces in the second game of the opening set. Rune wasted another break point in the sixth game before converting his third break point in the 10th game to win the first set 6-4.
Safiulin broke twice in the fifth and seventh games to win the second set 6-2.
As Rune was serving at 1-1, he saved five break points to hold from 0-40 down before reeling off four consecutive games with two breaks of serve to win the third set 6-1. Rune did not face any break points and totaled 13 winners in seven games of the decider.
The Danish player has now a record of 42 wins to 17 defeats in indoor matches on the ATP Tour.
Rune will face Alexander Schevchenko in the second round.
“I was for sure in trouble. I was not really playing great at that moment of the match, so I just told myself: ‘OK, let’s dig in, just keep digging dip. The longer the match goes, the more time I have to find my level. That happened. I got that match, got that momentum after that one and then started playing really good from 2-1 in the third set”, said Rune.
Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov overcame Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to improve his seasonal win-loss record to 11-2.
Dimitrov, who won the Brisbane title and reached the final in Marseille, set up a second round match against Marton Fucsovics.
Dimitrov is 2-2 level in his head-to-head matches against Fucsovics.
Dimitrov earned an early break in the first game, but Sonego broke back in the fourth game to 2-2. Both players went on serve with no breaks of serve until the end of the first set. Dimitrov went up a mini-break twice in the tie-break, but Sonego pulled back on serve both times to draw level to 4-4. Dimitrov earned his third mini-break to take a 5-4 lead in the tie-break and won two more serve points to clinch the tie-break 7-4.
Dimitrov earned a decisive break to open up a 5-3 lead in the second set. The Bulgarian player won four consecutive points, as he was serving for the match, and sealed the second set 6-3.
Dimitrov reached the semifinals in Rotterdam in 2023.
Gael Monfils battled past Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in a hard-fought match. Monfils saved all three break points to take a 2-1 lead in his three head-to-head matches against Shapovalov, who has recently returned from a long injury lay-off.
Monfils earned only a break point and was not able to convert it. Shapovalov did not convert his three break points and hit 38 winners to 24 unforced errors.
Shapovalov went up a 2-0 lead with a mini-break to take a 4-1 lead in the tie-break. Monfils came back by winning six consecutive points with two mini-breaks to win the first tie-break 7-4.
Monfils opened up a 3-0 lead with two mini-breaks. Shapovalov pulled back on serve to draw level to 5-5. Monfils won the final two points to seal the second tie-break 7-5 to set up a match against this year’s Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, who beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-3.
Emil Ruusuvuori overcame this year’s Marseille champion Ugo Humbert 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Ruusuvuori has improved to 5-0 in his head-to-head matches against Humbert. The first set went on serve with no breaks of serve. Ruusuvuori went up a mini-break twice, but Humbert pulled back on serve to draw level to 3-3. Ruusuvuori won the final three points from 4-5 down to win the tie-break 7-5. Humbert earned an early break on his second oppoprtunity in the first game to seal the second set 6-4. Humbert earned an early break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Ruusuvuori broke straight back to draw level to 2-2. Humbert broke for the second time in the eighth game and served out the win on his first match point.
Milos Raonic beat Alexander Bublik 6-4 6-4 to reach his first tour-level quarter final since the 2020 Rolex Paris Masters. Raonic stopped Bublik’s five match winning streak. Raonic broke in the third game of the first set and in the fifth game of the second set.
