Rune Uses Rest To His Advantage As He Bests Medvedev In Monte Carlo
ATP
Holger Rune defeated Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to reach the Monte-Carlo Masters semi-finals.
Rune benefitted from Matteo Berrettini's withdrawal, which meant he was well-rested in this quarter-final match. On top of that, Medvedev had to play his third-round match against Alexander Zverev late at night, which made him more fatigued.
The Russian player is no lover of clay, either, and he showed that in this match. Medvedev never liked clay. He’s been quite open about it. Even though he doesn’t like the surface, he can still make deep runs at clay-court events.
The Danish rising star, on the other hand, is much more in tune with clay, having played on it since he was a kid. He’s a great clay-court player, and he showed it in the quarter-final match at the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season.
The match had twists and turns, even though the Dane seemed to be in control for the vast majority of it. Rune didn’t face any issues in the opening set, cruising through his games without too many problems.
On his opponent's serve, Rune was able to get a break fairly early and simply hold serve from there, winning it 6-3. It was just a bit too passive from Medvedev against the shot-maker that Rune is.
The second set was more competitive because Medvedev quickly assumed that he had to step up to win. He started to be more aggressive and hit more winners in the second set, even breaking Rune's serve once.
The problem was that he lost his serve two times because Rune was once again really superb. He totaled 11 winners with only two unforced errors, and there was simply not much that Medvedev could do.
The Russian was facing a very inspired player who enjoys the clay courts more and was more motivated to push. Ultimately, that would be enough for Rune to win the match 6-3, 6-4, and secure a spot in the semi-final. He will await one of the Italians, as Jannik Sinner is set to take on Lorenzo Musetti, who stunned Novak Djokovic.
