Tsitsipas party Runed
Danish teenager stuns world No. 4 Stefanos in Paris
Paris, May 30: Teenager Holger Rune became the first Danish man to reach the French Open quarterfinals on Monday when he shocked world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas, while Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova guaranteed a Russian woman will make the semi-finals.
Rune, just 19 and ranked
40, swept to a memorable
7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win on the back of 54 winners against the 2021 runner-up from Greece.
He will face Norway’s eighth seed Casper Ruud for a place in the last-four.
With fellow 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz already into the quarter-finals, it is the first time two teenagers have made it this far in Paris since Hendrik Dreekman and Andrei Medvedev 28 years ago.
In a tense fourth set, Rune gave up a 5-2 lead and fought off three more break points in the 10th game before he secured victory when Tsitsipas hit long.
Stefanos Tsitsipas shrugged off his stunning exit, insisting: “I want payback”.
It was the second time this year that Tsitsipas had been out-foxed by one of the sport’s highly-rated teenagers after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the Barcelona quarterfinals.
“I'm not worried. I know my tennis, I know my game. These kids are
going to want to beat me badly because obviously they are chasing,” said Tsitsipas, who was bidding to make the quarterfinals in Paris for a third successive year.
“I’m chasing too, but I’m at a different kind of position than they are. I’m hungry to beat them too. Now that they have beat me I want payback,” he said.
Tsitsipas described the 40th-ranked Rune as an
emotional player. “One-ofa-kind of an opponent I would say. He is a very emotional player, he can play great, he absolutely deserves this victory, played better, faced crucial tough moments better,” said Tsitsipas.
“But I can see something different next time with this opponent. I’m pretty convinced I can do way better. This is not where I’ve maxed out, let’s say. I didn’t give myself the
opportunity to go all the way and that is a shame,” he said.
RUUD IN LAST EIGHT
Ruud became the first Norwegian man to reach the last eight with a 6-2, 63, 3-6, 6-3 win against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
The 23-year-old is also into his first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal as he continues an impressive season which has seen him win two clay-court titles. “It’s been a goal of mine to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam,” said Ruud.
Ruud will start favourite in Wednesday’s match, having won all three of his previous ATP meetings with Rune, all on clay and without dropping a set.
In the women’s draw, Kasatkina said she is looking forward to sharing another “good memory” with Kudermetova when the Russian duo face each other in the quarter-finals.
Kasatkina, seeded 20th, took advantage of Italian Camila Giorgi’s 37 unforced errors to win their last-16 tie, 6-2, 6-2.
Kudermetova reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final as the world number 29 came back from a set down to defeat 2018 semifinalist Madison Keys of the United States, 1-6, 63, 6-1.