Holger Rune arrived at the 2023 Canadian Open with high hopes, but they were ruthlessly smashed by Marcos Giron in the second round of the event.
Rune had looked solid on the courts up until recently, making the Wimbledon quarter-final, which was a great result for the Dane. He lost to Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets, but overall, it was a good run for him.
He then signed up to play in the restructured Hopman Cup, where he played two matches despite struggling with some physical problems. It was an odd sequence, but Rune came to Canada hoping to get his season back on track.
It’s been a few weeks since the Hopman Cup; however, Rune still didn’t look quite his best. In fairness, he did get a very tricky player in Marcos Giron, who is more than capable of playing good tennis, but even so, Rune was hugely favored.
The match itself opened poorly for him, as he lost the opening set 2-6. That’s never ideal because it gives the underdog a confidence boost, and Giron can be quite streaky.
The American was super aggressive in that first set, catching Rune off guard, but the Dane did respond well, outplaying him in the second to win it 6-4. This time around, it was Rune who dominated the rallies.
Even so, the American was still able to win the match, winning the final set 6-3. Rune rushed too much in that set and had huge issues with his serve, totaling seven double faults, which was too much.
He had 12 winners in that set, but also 14 unforced errors and 7 of those were double faults. Still, all credit goes to Giron, who remained stable and took his chances and was obviously happy about the win.
"I've played with a lot of guys who are Top 10 in the world so I knew that I can do it. I knew that the level is there. But the margins are so small and you never know when that break is going to happen..."
"So you always have to be there. It really sucked losing the second set having game point serving at 40/15, but that happens. You have to move forward and you can't hold on to that for too long."