Holger Rune wasn't able to win his third-round match against an inspired Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the 2023 Madrid Open.
The two players met in what has been a highlight of Sunday action at the Manolo Santana Stadium at La Caja Magica. Before the two met in their first H2H meeting on the ATP Tour, the home crowd was delighted to see the first-seeded Carlos Alcaraz win.
Riding the wave from the previous match, they also wanted to push another Spaniard in the draw into the next round, and the crowd's involvement in the match has been significant. It all started already in the seventh game of the first set, after a controversy that involved a hawk eye and an incident that saw Rune stepping close to the ball mark in question.
That made the crowd in Madrid go crazy and support their player even more than they probably even initially intended to. After none of the players managed to break in the first set, it reached a tie-break and the crowd's support was visibly felt by Davidovich Fokina.
He managed to win seven of the eight points played in the tie-break and after an hour and six minutes, the Spanish player won the first set 7-6(1) and gave the crowd in the country's capital another reason to support him.
Although the young Dane was the first player to break in the second set, Davidovich Fokina broke back and at 4-3, he had two break points to go into a one-break lead and serve for the match.
But Rune saved both and after he applied pressure on his opponent's serve, the world no. 7 got another break, and this time it was enough for him to win the second set 7-5 and force a decider after already more than two hours of play.
The recently turned 20-year-old broke first also in the third set. But once again, Davidovich Fokina was able to find a response. And this time, he added one more break and at 5-3, he was serving for the match. But the world no. 35 immediately faced two break points and it didn't go well for him.
When facing the second break point in the ninth game, the Spaniard had a whole court open as his opponent slipped, but a wrong choice saw him send the ball directly at Rune, who pulled off a beautiful backhand cross to break back.
After both players held their serve, we went into a tie-break, but the home crowd favourite wasn't feeling fit after almost three hours of play and required some medical assistance in between the games.
But the didn't mean anything in the tie-break, as supported by the crowd, Davidovich Fokina rallied to an impressive win, beating his opponent 7-6(1), 5-7, 7-6(5) after three hours and six minutes.
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