Rune Ruins Cerundolo In 5, Gets Ruud At French Open; Djokovic, Alcaraz Tue. Favorites

One dream match-up is set on the men’s side as in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at the French Open Holger Rune will get a rematch against Casper Ruud.

Ruud was the first to finish easing past Chile’s Nicholas Jarry.

Jarry entered the match winning his last seven which including a title in Geneva where he upset 2-time defending champion Ruud.

Today, Ruud turned the tables wearing down the Chilean at the end to return to the quarterfinals.

Rune had a much, much tougher go needing four hours and five sets to oust Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6[10-7].

“I had a heartbreaking loss like this at the Australian Open,” Rune said. “I told myself just to enjoy the moment, these are the moments that stay with you for your life.”

Rune lost a break lead early but managed to hold it in breaker. The Argentine, playing in his first Slam fourth round, would strike back only to have Rune go back in the third.

But in the fourth, Rune all but tapped out, allowing Cerundolo to quickly push a fifth, the first of his career.

Rune stepped up his game and energy, however Cerundolo would be on the precipice with Rune serving 3-4, 0-40. A break and Cerundolo would serve for it, but the 24-year-old couldn’t convert, and then got broken himself at 4-all.

Rune, though, also failed to close it out! With tension building, the two forced a breaker, one Rune handled both physically and mentally better to book a second straight French Open quarterfinals.

”He’s playing amazing, especially on clay,” said Rune. “I think it’s a surface that suits his game very well. He has a big forehand, a big swing. So when he gets the time, as we saw when I was [serving] for the match, he hit two forehand winners and he was just too good. So credit to him, he’s a very nice guy and I wish him all the best.”

The evening matches saw Alexander Zverev top No. 28 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to return to the quarterfinals for a third straight year. He’ll now face first-time Slam quarterfinals Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina who eliminated the 27th-seeded Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6(10-8), 6-0, 6-1.

Etcheverry hasn’t dropped a set thus far.

“For me I have a lot of emotion right now. I think I am really, really happy. The best moment of my life,” Etcheverry said after his third straight win over a seed. “Of course, in the next round it’s going to be tough. Sascha Zverev, I think he has a lot of more experience than me, but I feel really good to play against him. I am playing incredible tennis this week, and just I have to focus on my game and trying to do the same like I am doing every day.”

Tomorrow, quarterfinals play begins with No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz drawing No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas. Alcaraz is a perfect 4-0 against the Greek winning most recently in April in the Barcelona final.

No. 3 Novak Djokovic tests No. 11 Karen Khachanov. He’s ahead of the Russian 8-1 with a win last year at the Paris indoors.

TUESDAY FRENCH OPEN SCHEDULE
Court Philippe-CHATRIER – Début à 11h00
Karolina MUCHOVA (CZE) contre Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (—)
suivi de
Pas avant 12h30
Elina SVITOLINA (UKR) contre Aryna SABALENKA (—)[2]
Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB)[3] contre Karen KHACHANOV (—)[11]

Pas avant 20h15
Carlos ALCARAZ (ESP)[1] contre Stefanos TSITSIPAS (GRE)[5]

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