Holger Rune just recently won his first match on grass but it doesn't matter as he keeps winning on it, booking another win at Wimbledon.
Holger Rune is a tremendous talent but his experience on grass is very minimal. He went winless last year winning his first match on the surface this year in Queen's. He was denied a final at the ATP 500 event but earned some confidence which allowed him to win his first Wimbledon match a few days ago.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has more experience on the surface but he threw away the match. Literally. It was a very interesting match which was largely expected as you had two very passionate players compete. Neither of them is particularly shy in the way they approach tennis and it there was some spice to it, certainly.
The opening set demonstrated Rune in his element. He was very aggressive, much more than his opponent and it worked out really well for him. 13 Winners compared to only 8 by Davidovich Fokina was more than enough to create an advantage in spite of 11 unforced errors. He broke the Spanish player twice to win the opening set 6-3.
The second set saw the Spaniard play a lot better and it started with his serve. He served much better and that allowed him to win points easier which translated into confidence. He's always been a very strong player though incredibly streaky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
It worked really well in the second set as he had 12 winners to 8 from Rune as the Dane also struggled with his serve. Ultimately the better you serve the easier it will be on grass and this match proved that quite convincingly.
Davidovich Fokina continued playing well in the 3rd set even though he pulled back some of the aggression. The crucial thing for the Spaniard was avoiding too many mistakes. Rune had more winners but also more errors and it cost him. He didn't even create a single break point chance in that 3rd set.
Davidovich Fokina is a Wimbledon juniors champion so playing well on grass is nothing new for him. He's been pretty solid in the professionals as well. When it comes to Rune, well he won his first match on grass quite recently at the Cinch Championships. That difference was visible at times but Rune's talent is arguably greater and it carried him at times.
It carried him in the 4th set which played very similarly to the first one. Rune once again opted to risk a lot and it paid off as he posted 13 winners compared to only 5 from Fokina. The streaky nature of Fokina came out aS he played a lacklustre set overall even though he had chances.
The final set was a proper battle. We saw some tired legs but a lot of passion from both to try and win the match. Fokina was the slightly better player having chances in multiple games including two match points at 5-4. He didn't use them and Rune was able to force a match tiebreak (first to 10).
In the match tiebreak, Rune misfired too much early allowing the Spaniard to jump out to a 4-1 lead. Fokina continued to play well holding his lead until 8-5 but then did a few questionable things to lose the advantage and give Rune a match point. His first and he converted it.
The final score was 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-4 7-6(8) for Rune who had 61 winners and 19 aces. He will face either Frances Tiafoe or Grigor Dimitrov next.
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