Holger Rune had to fight for his first-round victory at the 2023 Roland Garros against Christopher Eubanks.
The young Dane arrived in Paris as one of the top favourites to lift the title in two weeks. He had a very good clay-court season, reaching two ATP 1000 finals on the red dirt. Ahead of the tournament, Rune was careful when naming favourites but there's not doubt that he's one of them.
But already in the first round of the competition, he faced an opponent that already had a sensational run this season, Christopher Eubanks. The American reached the quarterfinals in Miami, and he certainly wanted to do the same thing also in Paris.
But his clay-court qualities are nowhere near Rune's and it showed during their first-round match, which was played on Court Simonne-Mathieu. The Danish player started the match with a break already in the third game and after saving a break point immediately after, nothing held him back from winning the opener 6-4.
But it didn't take long before his opponent responded. Eubanks used his only break point in the second set and showed a serving masterclass in the remainder of his service games. However, when serving for the set, the American had to face three break points.
Saving all of them, Eubanks won the second set 6-3 and made sure that he will play at least four sets with the talented 20-year-old. But the sixth seed didn't want to allow any drama.
He broke the American in the third set, but the response came immediately. Rune added one more break, but again, Eubanks was able to respond, eventually taking the third set into a tie-break. Rune didn't allow the match to slip out of his hands, winning the tie-break 7-2.
After a confidence boost in a third-set tie-break win, Rune seemed to be unstoppable in the fourth set. He used both of his break points and after two hours and 53 minutes, he beat Eubanks 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 to book second-round spot at the 2023 Roland Garros.
The 20-year-old will now await one of the two really tricky opponents. Sebastian Baez from Argentina can be one of them and home crowd favourite, Gael Monfils is the other one.
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