Rune Rallies To Win Over Thiem In Monte Carlo
ATP
Holger Rune started off his Monte-Carlo Masters campaign with a pretty solid win against Dominic Thiem.
Rune has had a pretty decent year so far with a couple of excellent runs but a couple of really poor losses as well. It’s just the nature of how the young Dane plays. He’s very streaky, and he’s very aggressive, so there is always a chance that he can have a bad match.
Even with the good performances, Rune has yet to really make a final this year, coming closest in Acapulco, where he lost in the semi-final. The hope for the upcoming Monte-Carlo Masters is that he finally makes a final, as clay is a really good surface for him.
He can do really well on that surface, and he certainly did really well in the first match at the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event. He faced Dominic Thiem, who, at his best, was an amazing clay player, but these days, he’s not as good.
That was certainly on display against Rune, as the Dane dominated in the opening set. He was basically beating Thiem from the baseline, outhitting him from both sides. Thiem didn’t really have any response to Rune and lost the opening set 2-6.
The second set was a bit closer as Rune struggled more on his serve. He didn’t really dominate as much, even though he didn’t get broken in the second set either. He managed to save both break points he faced.
On Thiem's serve, Rune managed to create five break points but only converted one of those. That was still more than enough to win the set and the match 6-2, 6-4, as he played cleanly on his own serve.
Overall, it was a great start for Rune on the clay, as he totaled 40 winners in this match while only committing seven unforced errors. Considering the volatility of clay tennis, that’s a really good mark.
After the match, Rune was happy about his performance but also praised his opponent, who knows how it feels to play a major final on clay.
"It's my first match back on clay so there were a few adjustments to make. But I'm all in all happy with how I handled the situation on court. Dominic already played a couple of matches [on clay]. He's a dangerous player. He can hit winners from anywhere in the court so I had to be sharp, move well and play well."
"Of course there were a few moments at the end where I think he had maybe too much time to play. But I think all in all we played on my terms and I'm happy with how I controlled most of the match."
