Old friends Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune will make history as the first-ever under-21 opponents to face each other in a Wimbledon quarterfinal.
Rune, seeded sixth at the 2023 Wimbledon, bounced back from a set down against Grigor Dimitrov to progress from his round of 16 clash. Meanwhile, Alcaraz also had to recover from a one-set deficit to eventually beat Matteo Berrettini across four sets in their round four battle.
The respective victories for Rune and Alcaraz led to a tantalising Wimbledon quarter-final contest between the two 20-year-olds, who were born just six days apart. It will also be the youngest Grand Slam quarter-final since 2009 and Rune said in his post-match press conference that he is relishing the opportunity to make history and take on his long-standing friend.
"It's great. It's a good feeling. It shows that the young players are doing a great job. For me it's cool. For him it's also cool, I guess. To be able to play a quarterfinal against a player that is your same age, at the top of the ranking, feels amazing. I'm really looking forward to that match. I even looked at it when I was in the first round."
"I couldn't really afford to look at it because there were so many matches before this would eventually happen. Now we're here so I'm really pumped and excited for it."
Alcaraz and Rune are two opponents that know each other well, having played together since the age of 12 years old. As a result, the pair are good friends and Alcaraz revealed in his post-match press conference that he is looking forward to the upcoming quarter-final against Rune, which could add a bit of extra excitement.
"I'm really excited about this match. We shared a lot of great moments. We played together since we were 12 years old. We've not texted each other, but obviously we know really well each other. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I think he's the same.
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