Holger Rune played two challenging matches at the 2024 Madrid Open, and despite winning the first one, Tallon Griekspoor proved to be too strong.
The young Dane exited the Top 10 recently, but there's no doubt that he belongs there. During the clay-court part of the season, which is one that he preferred historically, he wanted to make up some ground, but despite good first two tournaments, the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid didn't go so well for Rune.
In the second round, he played against Mariano Navone, who played a very inspired match, and the 20-year-old won only barely, beating his Argentinian opponent 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4, despite having incorrectly strung racket during the match.
In the third round, he played against fellow seed Griekspoor, who outplayed Taro Daniel in his first match in the Spanish capital, and following up on that win, the Dutch player started well also in this match.
First, he had three break points in the sixth game, but despite leaving those unused, he broke his opponent's serve a few games later in the tenth game, giving the Danish player no time to respond, as Griekspoor won the first set 6-4.
Rune managed to fight back in the second set. Despite having to save seven break points, he succeeded in doing that, and used one of his two break chances to get the only break of the second set, which he won 6-4.
But Rune missed the start of the deciding set, losing his serve in the second game, and he had only one more break point chance in the remainder of the set, which he didn't use.
In the rest of his service games, Griekspoor lost only one point, and thanks to that he was able to win the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, eliminating the 11th-seeded Rune.