Holger Rune showed an incredible fighting spirit when he defeated Manuel Guinard at the 2022 Lyon Open despite struggling with cramps.
Cramps are quite common for tennis players, but quite often a prolonged cramping period during a match means subsequent loss, as the opponents are quite often able to take advantage of that and beat their opponents.
However, that wasn't the case at the ATP 250 tournament in Lyon. Previously, Rune defeated two French players in Lyon and faced another one in the quarterfinals.
The French player proved to be a good competitor already in the opening set, saving multiple break points while using his chances, to win the first set 6-3.
However, the Danish player was able to fight back in the second set of the match. This time, it was Rune who used his chances, and after taking his opponent's serve once, he won the second set 6-3.
Yet, in the third set of the match, the Dane started struggling with cramps, which completely stopped his progress. After the seventh game, it looked like Rune was almost not able to walk and really struggled.
He was even forced to serve underarm a few times, and to save some time for himself to recover, he even received a time violation. But his opponent seemingly wasn't able to capitalize on that.
Rune just kept pushing, and as a result, after two hours and 11 minutes of the match, he was able to win it 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to beat already third French opponent at the event and secure a spot in the semifinals.
Up next, he will take on the first-seeded player at the tournament, Cameron Norrie, in what will be their first meeting. The top-seeded Brit had a bye in the opening round before beating Argentinians Francisco Cerundolo and Sebastian Baez.