Tennis

Holger Rune in the final in Rome

Published

3 years ago

May 20, 2023

Nancy

PHOTO GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE, REUTERS

Holger Rune

(Rome) The Danish Holger Rune, seeded N.7, qualified for the final of the Masters 1000 in Rome on Saturday by winning the Scandinavian duel against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (N.4) 6-7 (2/7 ), 6-4, 6-2.

Rune overturned a badly boarded match to clinch his first victory against the Norwegian, after four defeats in as many confrontations. He will be opposed in the final on Sunday to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (N.5), finalist last year, or the Russian Daniil Medvedev (N.3), who face each other in the afternoon.

Eight days before the start of Roland-Garros, the young Dane (20), who fell defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, confirms his meteoric rise.

He will play in Rome his third final in four tournaments on ocher this season, after the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo (defeat against Andrey Rublev) and the ATP 250 in Munich (victory against Botic van de Zandschulp, his fourth title ).

Under a fine Roman rain, Ruud was able to control the ardor of Rune for a set and a half, not conceding the slightest break point thanks to a first ball at the rendezvous and running at full speed to pick the many drop shots attempted by the Dane .

At this rate, the finalist of the last Roland-Garros already seemed to have a foot in the final when he broke in the second set to lead 4-2, after winning the first set thanks to a perfectly controlled decisive game.

But this is when Rune chose to step up his game, after having his right shoulder massaged for a few minutes — a break that did him the greatest good.

“At that point, I said to myself that I had nothing to lose, that it was probably my last set here, that we had to play free, and that’s what I did,” said told Rune after the game.

The explosive Dane finally had a break point, his first of the match, which he did not miss to come back to 4-4. Another match then began between a totally revived and aggressive Rune and a Ruud no longer finding the angles, overtaken by the fear of losing after having already failed twice in the semi-finals in Rome, in 2020 and 2022.

Tornado Rune followed up in a one-way third set to complete their qualification in 2:43, rushing to the final in Rome for their first appearance in the main draw.

Source: lapresse

Nancy

I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.

Tennis

Veterans Cilic and Wawrinka reached the 1/16 final at the Aus Open. Djokovic’s reaction

Published

22 minutes ago

January 22, 2026

Nancy

Veterans Cilic and Wawrinka reached the 1/16 final at the Aus Open. Djokovic’s reaction

37-year-old Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic (ATP 70) and a 40-year-old Swiss Stan Wawrinka Reached the 1/16 final at the 2026 Australian Open.

Cilic defeated 21st seed Denis Shapovalov (Canada, ATP 23) in three sets in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Marin started the Australian Open with a win over Daniel Altmaier. His next opponent will be Casper Ruud, who is ranked 13th in the ATP rankings.

Cilic achieved his 599th career win at the ATP level, equaling Goran Ivanisevic for the most wins by a Croatian tennis player in the Open era.

Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final

Denis Shapovalov (Canada) [21] – Marin Cilic (Croatia) – 4:6, 3:6, 2:6

Wawrinka, who is in the final season of his career, won in 4 hours and 33 minutes in a five-set thriller against Arthur Gea (France, ATP 198) in the second round of the Aus Open. This fight is the longest fight in slam so far.

This match marked the 49th five-setter match of Stan’s career in Grand Slam tournaments; He surpassed Roger Federer (48) and became the sole owner of the Open Era record in this indicator.

Since the introduction of the 128-player draw across the four Grand Slams in 1987, Wawrinka became the oldest player to achieve multiple wins at a single major, at 40 years and 296 days.

Stan started AO-2026 with a victory over Laszlo Gyore. His next opponent will be world number 9 Taylor Fritz.

Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final

Arthur Hea (France) [Q] – Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) [WC] – 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:7 (3:10)

Besides Cilic and Wawrinka, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic from Serbia also qualified for the 1/16 final at the Aus Open on January 22. After the end of the match day, Novak published a post in his story with the match result and Marin and Stan’s results and signed:

“There is no coup without the old man” translated from Serbian means: “There is no coup without the old man.”

Source: Sport UA

Nancy

I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.

Tennis

The first big sensation occurred in the Australian Open 2026 women’s draw

Published

2 hours ago

January 22, 2026

Nancy

The first big sensation occurred in the Australian Open 2026 women’s draw

Swiss tennis player Belinda Bencic (WTA 10) was sensationally eliminated from the 2026 Australian Open.

In the second round, Switzerland was defeated by the Czech Republic representative in three sets. Nikola Bartunkova (WTA 126) in 2 hours 13 minutes.

Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final

Nikola Bartunkova (Czech Republic) – Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) [10] – 6:3, 0:6, 6:4

Bartunkova and Bencic played each other for the first time.

Belinda lost her first match of 2026. She started the season in the United Cup, where she defeated Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini, among others.

19-year-old Nicola started the Aus Open with the qualifiers. In the first round of the main draw, Bartunkova will compete with Elise Merets after eliminating Daria Kasatkina.

For the first time in her career, Bartunkova beat a tennis player in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. This was also the first defeat of a tennis player ranked in the top 10 at the Australian Open.

Source: Sport UA

Nancy

I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.

Tennis

Australian Open Denis Shapovalov loses in second round

Published

2 hours ago

January 22, 2026

Nancy

Australian Open Denis Shapovalov loses in second round

(Melbourne) Denis Shapovalov lost sharply 6-4, 6-3 and 6-2 to Marin Cilic in the second round of the Australian Open tennis tournament on Thursday.

Shapovalov, the 21^e seeded in the tournament, fell to the Croatian, who was finalist at Melbourne Park in 2018, thus leveling the record between the two tennis players at 3-3 in their careers.

As for Cilic, who is 37 years old, he reached the third round of the first major tournament of the season for the first time since 2022. He will face the winner of the duel between the Spaniard Jaume Munar and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, 12^e seeded.

The Canadian did not seem to be in his right mood during his match against Cilic. He was notably limited to 12 winning shots, committed 42 unforced errors, and seven double faults during their match.

Moreover, Shapovalov was very generous towards his opponent, 70^e world racket. He conceded six breaks in 12 chances to Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open winner, and converted only two of his six break points.

For the 26-year-old Ontarian, it was a fourth defeat in his last five matches.

There is therefore only one representative of the maple leaf left in the singles tables of the Australian Open: Victoria Mboko.

The Ontarian, the 17^e seeded, will face the Danish Clara Tauson, 14^e seeded, in the third round in the evening on Thursday.

Her compatriot, the Ontarian Gabriela Dabrowski, and her Brazilian playing partner, Luisa Stefani, will play their second round doubles match against the French Elsa Jacquemot and the Colombian Emiliana Arango, in the evening.

Source: lapresse

Nancy

I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.