Holger Rune had to show his better level to defeat Michael Mmoh at the 2024 Montpellier Open, but the Danish number one won in two sets.
This was anything but an easy match for Rune, but it was a straight-sets win nonetheless. The American is a tricky player because he's just so solid overall, and he was more than solid in the quarter-final match at the ATP 250 event in Montpellier.
On the other hand, Rune can be streaky; on his best day, he'll crush the opponent, but then he has his bad days when he has to fight his demons. This one wasn't too terrible for him as he played pretty well, but there are certain things that he could have done better.
The opening set was tough, very tough, so tough, in fact, that Rune could have actually lost it. He got broken first but broke back immediately after that. Both had more chances to break after that, but neither got it done, and the set ended up in a tiebreak.
It was a close one. Mmoh fought his way to a set point at 6-5, but Rune saved it and used his second set point to win the tie-break 8-6. That was a huge momentum booster for the Danish player, who started to find better solutions in the second set.
Mmoh served pretty well in the opening set, which was crucial to keep himself in play. That wasn't the case early in the second set, and Rune used that to take an early break. After that, it was a pretty simple journey for the top seed to the finish line.
He had full control of the match; he only needed to focus on his own serve, and everything started to click. He would cruise to the finish line with the final score being 7-6(6), 6-4, and move on to the semi-final, where he'll play either Borna Coric or Flavio Cobolli.
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