The world number 6, the Dane Holger Rune, qualified for the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon tournament on Tuesday by dismissing the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov with forceps 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7 /4), 6-3.
A double quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros, Rune confirmed the progress on grass glimpsed at the Queen’s tournament, where he had won his first three matches on the surface of his career to reach the semi-final.
“It was a crazy match, he pushed me to my limits,” admitted the Dane after the match.
Faced with the power of Dimitrov (21st), his strongest opponent on grass since the start of the tournament, since he had joined the last four at Wimbledon in 2014, Rune initially struggled, conceding the first set 6-3 and a break in the second set to trail 3-1.
But with the variety of his shots, his excellent footwork and not hesitating to come to the net – 23 points won out of 33 climbs – he gradually found the solution to outsmart his 12-year-old eldest.
Uncompromising on his serve from there, he managed to unbreak to equalize at 4-4 and win the second and third sets in the tie-break.
In a fourth set where the two players ensured their face-off, he was opportunistic by breaking on his first opportunity at 3-2 for him and also concluding on his first match point, on a backhand in the corridor of Dimitrov.
In the next round, the level of adversity will be even higher since he will have world number one Carlos Alcaraz in his path.
