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Rune Books Tsitsipas Showdown In Roland Garros Debut

  • Posted: May 28, 2022

Rune Books Tsitsipas Showdown In Roland Garros Debut

#NextGenATP Dane competing in third Grand Slam

Holger Rune shined in his Court Philippe Chatrier debut Saturday night, fending off home favourite Hugo Gaston and the Paris crowd to extend his dream debut at Roland Garros. The #NextGenATP Dane scored an impressive 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win to set up a fourth-round showdown with fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The match was a great spectacle, filled with lengthy rallies and plenty of twists despite the straightforward scoreline. There were 10 combined breaks of serve, with the 19-year-old Rune converting on seven of his 11 break chances. 

Gaston ignited a party atmosphere under the Chatrier lights by breaking in the opening game of the match, but Rune responded brilliantly by winning five straight games to quiet the crowd. After the Dane cruised through the second set with a pair of breaks, he raced out to a 5-1 lead in the third to put one foot in the fourth round.

But neither Gaston nor the Paris crowd gave up, and Toulouse native closed to 3-5 much to the delight of his supporters. Stepping to the line to serve out the match for the second time, Rune got the better of some lengthy rallies to get over the line without any additional drama.

Both men eclipsed 30 winners, with Rune hitting 38 to his opponent’s 31. Many of those winners came at the end of punishing rallies, with Ruud frequently pulling his opponent out of position. The Dane’s control of all aspects of the match was underlined by his healthy edge in short (plus seven), medium (plus nine) and long (plus seven) rallies.

Rune, playing in his third Grand Slam, picked up his first victory at that level by upsetting 14th seed Denis Shapovalov in the Paris opening round. He beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen in the second round before getting past the 21-year-old Gaston. The Dane has not dropped a set on the fortnight, and only dropped more than three games in a set once, when Shapovalov took him to a third-set tie-break.

The 2019 Roland Garros boys’ singles champion and a former junior World No. 1, Rune made his ATP Tour debut in 2021 and his Grand Slam debut at the 2021 US Open, where he took a set off Novak Djokovic in the opening round. He took two sets off Soonwoo Kwon in a five-set first-round loss at the 2022 Australian Open and claimed his first tour-level title in Munich on May 1.

The 19-year-old’s rise to a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 40 has been a quiet one, certainly compared to his contemporary Carlos Alcaraz, but the Dane maintains a strong sense of self-belief — a prerequisite for such success at an early age. While Alcaraz is known for his powerful and all-action game, Rune exudes a quiet confidence with a smooth and finesse-based attack which was on full display on centre court Saturday night.

Rune, who first broke into the Top 100 in January, began playing tennis at age six with his sister, who is four years older. The 19-year-old describes himself as relaxed and even lazy off the court, and is a fan of football and basketball as well as cinema. Before he made his breakthrough on the ATP Tour, Rune was a hitting partner at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, where he got the chance to hit with the likes of Roger Federer and Djokovic. He even got some serving tips from former World No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic’s coach.  

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Fittingly, Rune will meet Tsitsipas, the winner of that year’s Nitto ATP Finals title, in the fourth round. It will be their first ATP Head2Head meeting.

The Dane is one of two unseeded players among the last 16 standing at Roland Garros fourth round, alongside Bernabe Zapata Miralles.

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Ruud Makes History For Norway At Roland Garros

  • Posted: May 28, 2022

Ruud Makes History For Norway At Roland Garros

Norwegian advances to face Hurkacz

Casper Ruud came from behind against Lorenzo Sonego on Saturday and went the distance to advance to the Roland Garros fourth round for the first time. The sixth seed used a timely late surge to fend off the Italian, 6-2, 6-7(3), 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Ruud is the first Norwegian to reach the Roland Garros fourth round. The 23-year-old reached the third round each of the past three years, while his father Christian Ruud reached that stage in 1995 and 1999. The father-and-son duo are the only Norwegians to have progressed that far at the clay-court Grand Slam.

Sonego was six points from victory at 4-4, 30/30 in the fourth set, but Ruud played some of his best tennis to win six of the next seven games and set himself on course for victory. He scored his fifth break on his ninth break point with a forehand winner to edge ahead 3-1 in the deciding set, then lost just two points in his next three service games to close out the milestone win. 

The steady Ruud finished the match with a clean 39-21 winners-to-errors count, while Sonego filled the stat sheet as he attempted to force the action, finishing with 62 winners and 47 unforced errors.

While the Norwegian advances to the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the second time (2021 Australian Open), Sonego was bidding for his third Grand Slam fourth round after reaching that stage at Roland Garros in 2020 and Wimbledon in 2021. From 2020-22, Ruud leads the ATP Tour in clay-court wins with 63. He also tops the Tour in clay titles (7) and finals (8), including trophy runs in Buenos Aires and Geneva this season.

Now bidding for his first major quarter-final, he will next face 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz, who moved past David Goffin 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 earlier on Saturday.

Ruud first broke into the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings last September, his reward for a breakout season that included five titles (four on clay) behind a perfect 5-0 record in finals. He reached a career-high of No. 7 in April after reaching the Miami ATP Masters 1000 final, the 10th and biggest title match of his career. 

His Roland Garros breakthrough is far from the first time Ruud had made history for Norway. He is also the first Norwegian to break into the Top 10, win an ATP Tour title, reach an ATP Masters 1000 final and qualify for Nitto ATP Finals.

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Tsitsipas: Long Opening Matches Helped ‘Awaken Mind’ In Ymer Win

  • Posted: May 28, 2022

Tsitsipas: Long Opening Matches Helped ‘Awaken Mind’ In Ymer Win

Greek ran out straight-sets winner over No. 95-ranked Swede

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ 92-minute third-round win over Mikael Ymer at Roland Garros on Saturday proved relatively straightforward compared to his marathon battles with Lorenzo Musetti and Zdenek Kolar in the first two rounds at the clay-court Grand Slam. Yet despite the differing nature of the victory, the approach that took the Greek there remained the same.

“I had to do my job. I had to play my tennis. I wasn’t really thinking of the ease that I could maybe create in terms of a result,” said the World No. 4 in his post-match press conference. “With my good efforts, the way I committed myself to every single point individually, the end was good.

“I was able to create a good result today with some good tennis and be overall consistent in many aspects of my game. Playing with a lot of depth and really staying patient. I wasn’t thinking of the result. I was entirely focused on my play out there.”

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Tsitsipas holds high ambitions for another deep run in Paris, where he is now in the fourth round for a fourth consecutive year. Rather than emphasising the physical benefits of a straight-sets victory, however, the 2021 finalist was focussed on how the result boosts him mentally.

“It’s a good thing to have a match like this every now and then,” he said. “Especially when you come in, when you walk into a match with so much confidence and believe that you can really structure your tactics and you feel the confidence of your game itself.

“Having built up through the matches before, having played a lot of rallies but having been in a lot of situations in a match, you are able to kind of awaken the mind a little bit and see the best opportunities and possibilities for yourself.”

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Despite his gruelling clashes with Musetti (which lasted three hours, 34 minutes) and Kolar (four hours, six minutes), Tsitsipas believes off-court changes he has made now allow him to maintain his challenge over a Grand Slam fortnight regardless of the amount of time spent on court.

“I respect the top three a lot for having been so incredibly consistent the last couple of years. These guys have pushed me to become a better athlete…Every day is a question: ‘What can I add?’

“I have improved certainly a lot when it comes to my diet. Looking back on the diet that I had, let’s say, three or four years ago, it’s nothing compared to what I have now. I’m very professional and very conscious of what I consume and what I eat every day.

“In terms of fitness, this is something that I have questioned a lot as well. How much more can I push and bring my body to the limits in order to be at ease when I’m on the court, and be able to withstand all that physical pressure of playing long matches and having to push after every single shot?”

Tsitsipas’ new methods have powered the Greek to a strong 2022 season. He owns a Tour-leading 34 match wins this year and the Greek will hope that momentum can now carry him to a maiden Grand Slam title in Paris. The fourth seed feels taking a fresh perspective on his life on Tour can also help him achieve that goal.

“Of course the balance between life and career hasn’t been easy, but I really feel in better control of my life right now,” said Tsitsipas. “Being focussed and having control around me without relying too much on other people’s feelings and other people in general. I put myself a little bit more in front than I used to before, which I think has helped a lot.”

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Djokovic Meets Italian Pop Star Eros Ramazzotti At Roland Garros

  • Posted: May 28, 2022

Djokovic Meets Italian Pop Star Eros Ramazzotti At Roland Garros

Pop legend watches World No. 1’s third-round victory over Bedene in Paris

As Novak Djokovic eased past Aljaz Bedene at Roland Garros on Friday, a bona fide superstar of Italian music was enjoying the on-court rhythm of the World No. 1’s third-round display.

Eros Ramazzotti, who has sold over 60 million records across a 30-year career, was in the stands on Court Philippe Chatrier to witness Djokovic’s 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Ramazzotti, a singer, instrumentalist and songwriter who is also hugely popular in the Spanish-speaking world, is a long-time tennis fan but was paying his first visit to Roland Garros as a guest of the French Tennis Federation.

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“I always follow tennis and enjoy watching matches,” said the 58-year-old Ramazzotti, who has performed duets with a catalogue of stars including Cher, Tina Turner, Luciano Pavarotti and Ricky Martin. “The site is very impressive, I had never been here before. It was nice to see the behind the scenes and meet some of the players.

“John McEnroe used to be my favourite player, but this generation has a lot of amazing athletes and it’s really fun to follow the sport.”

A seven-time year-end No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Djokovic’s own Italian language skills are well-known. Two years ago, the Serbian even visited one of Italy’s most well-known music festivals in Sanremo, where he sang ‘Terra Promessa’, one of Ramazzotti’s most famous songs.

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Zapata Miralles On Cup Final Ticket Hunt & His Dream Roland Garros Run

  • Posted: May 28, 2022

Zapata Miralles On Cup Final Ticket Hunt & His Dream Roland Garros Run

Spanish qualifier faces Zverev in maiden Grand Slam fourth-round appearance

Bernabe Zapata Miralles did not think he would be in Paris on Saturday, but his best performance in a Grand Slam at Roland Garros has scuppered any plans the 25-year-old Valencian may have made before the event kicked off.

Soon after the qualifier beat John Isner on Friday to book himself a place in the last sixteen in the French capital, Zapata Miralles started a special campaign when he sat before the media at his post-match press conference — he asked for help sourcing a ticket for Saturday evening’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France.

“This is a public announcement. If anyone has a ticket…I’d like to go!” the Spaniard joked. “Tomorrow [Saturday] I’ll watch the match…if I can do so in the stadium, it would be better. I’m from Valencia but I support [Real] Madrid. I want Madrid to win the Champions League final against Liverpool!”

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By beating Isner, Zapata Miralles moved into the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, as well as earning himself the opportunity to go even further at the clay-court Grand Slam. On Sunday, the Spaniard will face Alexander Zverev for a place in the quarter-finals at the second major of the year.

“I’m trying not to think too much about being in the last 16,” Zapata Miralles acknowledged. “I’m still exhausted and in shock. I’ve tried to focus on the match and forget about the result and the round. It’ll start to sink in when I return home, honestly.

“I’m very excited. It’s a tournament that I love, and I didn’t expect to reach the round of 16. It’s a dream. I’m just thinking about improving and continuing to work hard. I have mental lows, the matches are long for me. It’s more exciting playing in these rounds, but I find it much harder to make the effort to play these matches.

“I’m going to try and keep up this level of work every week, if possible.”

Zapata Miralles is now reaping the rewards of hours of hard work behind the scenes, while he tries to find the best way to prepare to face Zverev.

“Now it’s time to rest and get ready for Sunday,” said the Valencian. “I don’t know if I’ve reached my limit or not, but I’m not too concerned. I just want to work well. If I’ve given my all on court, I can go home with peace of mind. I’ll find it hard to manage the nerves, but I’ll try and forget about them.”

To do so, Zapata Miralles may follow the lead of one of his idols, all of whom have helped him progress in one way or another. “On a mental level, [Rafael] Nadal is the best in history,” said Zapata Miralles. “I followed David Ferrer from when I was young, as he’s Valencian, and now I often watch Pablo Andujar.”

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