Holger Rune is in the Wimbledon quarter-final; something unlikely considering that he didn't win a single match on grass until recently.
The quarter-final berth comes after he beat Grigor Dimitrov in four sets in the 4th round of the event. It was an interesting match, very competitive and very close as two of the sets finished in the tie-break. Rune largely won thanks to being able to come out with the better highlight when it mattered the most though there was a bit of luck involved as well.
It's not the first time he's been lucky at Wimbledon as he had quite a bit of luck against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the previous round. He saved two match points in that and was a great beneficiary of a strange decision by Davidovich Fokina which in many ways cost the Spaniard the match.
The other lucky thing happened in the match against Dimitrov. He won the second set 8-6 in the tie-break by winning that last point even though he technically shouldn't have. Here is what happened. It was 7-6 for Rune in the tie-break with the rally developing.
Dimitrov hit a ball near the baseline which prompted Rune to lift his hand up and challenge the call though the umpire didn't intervene and the rally continued. Rune ultimately won the point converting the set point and winning the second set.
But why didn't the umpire intervene? Well, Rune didn't have any challenges left at that point but he put his hand up and briefly stopped playing which, according to the rules, should have been a hindrance. The umpire didn't call it that way opting to let them play on.
Rune certainly didn't want to distract his opponent as he simply wanted to challenge it but he didn't have any challenges left so it was an unintentional hindrance. Funnily enough, the replay did show that the ball was in so if Rune had the challenge he would have lost the point.
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