It took some time for Holger Rune to get to his best, but he eventually did, overpowering Max Purcell in his first match at the 2024 Brisbane International.
The 2024 ATP season officially started a few days ago, but now, also the calendars have turned, and the top seed at the 2024 Brisbane International needed to fight against the home player to move to the second round of the tournament.
The draw of the first tournament of the year paired up the young Dane with world no. 45, Purcell. The Australian knew he would get the support from the home crowd, and that was probably also one of the reasons why he won 12 of the first 13 rallies, leading 3-0 early on.
But Rune managed to recover the break soon, levelling the score of the opening set at 4-4, but it lasted only for a short period, as the Australian went on another streak, this time winning eight consecutive points to win the opening set 6-4.
But there was still a lot of room for improvement and comeback for the Dane, and that's what he started working towards early in the second set. In the third game, Rune got a break, and kept it throughout the second set, not facing a single break point.
The Danish player won the second set 6-4, and he almost kept his clean sheet on his serve for the remainder of the match, but eventually, he faced three break points in the eighth game of the third set.
However, he was already two breaks up at the time, and even saved all of the break points that he faced, winning the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with Alexander Shevchenko, who beat Luca Van Assche in the first round of the tournament.
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