Holger Rune made a winning return to clay by beating Fabian Marozsan at the 2024 Hamburg Open in two sets.
The last time the young Dane competed was at Wimbledon, where he put together a solid run just to run into Novak Djokovic, who bested him in straight sets. Now, he moved to Hamburg to compete at the ATP 500 tournament, and the draw was ruthless to him, giving him an opponent who previously stunned Carlos Alcaraz in Rome.
Rune's performances this year haven't been at the level we've gotten used to from him, but perhaps a run in the German city and potentially at the Olympics could set the season on the right course.
His first-round match was very fast-paced because both players prefer to play short points, and both were certainly backing that up with their displays in their meeting in Hamburg.
There was only one break of serve in that opening set, and it came fairly early for Rune, who took a 3-1 lead. After that, neither player created too much pressure on the serve, so the Danish player won the opening set 6-4.
Rune was a bit more precise with his shots than the Hungarian, who made more errors. The second set opened well for both, as there weren't any early breaks for either player.
Marozsan had a chance, but he didn't convert it, and it would prove quite costly a few games later when the young Dane broke for a 4-2 lead. That seemingly sealed the match for him, as Rune was too solid on his serve the entire day to allow any surprises.
He calmly served out the match and secured a spot in the next round. The final score was 6-4, 6-4 for Rune, which is a positive win for the 21-year-old, who finished the match with 23 winners and only 11 unforced errors.
Marozsan put together a solid showing, but it was far from what was needed to actually win the match.
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