Holger Rune had to dig deep against Alexander Bublik to advance at the 2023 Madrid Open.
The last match of the day at the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium was a very interesting one and it surely didn't fail in entertaining fans. In the opening two matches, fans saw two upsets as Casper Ruud lost to Matteo Arnaldi, and then Elena Rybakina was eliminated by Anna Kalinskaya.
Holger Rune surely wanted to avoid the same setback against Alexander Bublik, who he met once before on the ATP Tour and it ended in a tough three-set loss in Metz as the Kazakh won 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. This time, the match took place on the Dane's favourite clay and so he wanted to use that advantage in his favour.
Everything was speaking for Rune ahead of the match. He was coming off a title win in Munich, while Bublik's record against Top 10 opponents stood at 6-15, with 1-2 record if the match took place on the red dirt.
But the Kazakh wasn't ready to give up before the match started, even though the first set may have looked like that. Bublik, who is known for his risky second serves, struggled on his service in the first set as his opponent could break him each and every time. That along with the fact that Rune lost his serve only once contributed to an easy 6-1 win for the Dane.
But Bublik was staging a comeback and that started in the second set. Both players wanted to win the second set as it could be the one that would seal the deal for the teenager, on the other hand, the Kazakh could steal the momentum and then use it to his advantage in the third set.
And that's exactly what Bublik succeeded in doing. He won the second set 6-4 and showed a serving masterclass in the third set, hitting 7 aces and taking his opponent into a tie-break. The youngster got off to a good start, leading 6-4 and having two match points.
But that wasn't enough for Rune and also another chance at 7-6 wasn't used by the world no. 7. A couple of rallies later, it was Bublik who had a chance to finish the match as he led 8-7 and so no matter the result, both players would certainly feel that they could have won the match.
Supported by Patrick Mouratoglou, who he recently officially parted ways with despite still working together, from the stands, Rune wanted to be the one who writes the final sentence of the story as he prevailed to win the match 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(9) and advance into the third round of the 2023 Madrid Open.
The young Dane will now want to focus on his next opponent, who will be another dangerous players, the 29th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain.
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