Holger Rune didn't have enough for Jannik Sinner as the Italian powered past the Dane to advance to the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters semi-final, where he'll face Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Dane is a very good clay player who likes playing in Monte Carlo. In his run last year, he nearly won the event, losing only to Andrey Rublev. One of his wins last year was actually against Sinner, but the Italian got his revenge this year.
The writing was on the wall for this match because Rune spent a lot of time on the courts on Thursday. Even a fully rested Rune would have struggled against Sinner in this incredible form.
The start of the match was pretty good for the Danish youngster, as he was the one who created the first break chance. Sinner saved it and then went on to break Rune in the next game, which was the swing that ultimately sealed the opening set for the Italian.
Neither allowed a single break point after that break, with the final score being 6-4 in favor of the Italian, who was supported by the crowd. Overall, Rune displayed a pretty solid level in that opening set.
He served really well and played very aggressive tennis. He just didn't play the best rallies when it really mattered, and that's what you have to do against Sinner. The second set wasn't as clean for either player.
They both struggled with the serve, which complicated rallies for both. Sinner missed out on a huge chance at 2-2, failing to convert a 40-0 advantage on Rune's serve, but he remained unphased on his own serve.
The Danish player played confidently after that but ran into issues at 5-5. He was down 0-30, getting a time violation. After getting into it with the crowd, he got a code violation and called the supervisor.
Eventually, play resumed, and Sinner had three break points but wasted all of them. The set reached the tie-break, in which the umpire, Damien Dumusois, made another massive mistake when he overruled a ball, which was called in Rune's favour.
Still, battling the crowd, the umpire, and his opponent, Rune won the tie-break 8-6 after saving two match points to force the third set.
But it was becoming clear that the 20-year-old was just too exhausted after yesterday's packed schedule, and Sinner didn't need a second invitation to use his chances in this quarter-final match.
The Italian used his only break point in the third set to win the match 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 and reach the semi-final of the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters.
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