Reuters, June 7, Paris – In his quarterfinal French Open loss against Norway’s Casper Ruud on Wednesday, sixth seed Holger Rune made a lot of unforced mistakes on the court for almost an hour, which proved to be expensive.
Ruud easily won the first two sets in 68 minutes, leaving the 20-year-old to play catch-up instead of reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal.
Ruud prevailed once again in a rematch of the quarterfinal in Paris from the previous year, defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 to go to the semi-final.
Rune remarked, I wasn’t there the first two sets, but when you play a player like Casper, or any person at the top of the game, you cannot allow yourself to do that because it’s too far back.
Regretfully, I believe I got off to a rather poor start. In the first two sets, I was unable to determine my level at all.
It’s difficult. I missed so many shots in the first two sets that I really didn’t get a chance to see how good he was.
I felt that I performed better in the third and fourth sets, and he continued to play well, in my opinion.
In those two sets, Rune committed thirty unintentional errors and barely applied any pressure to his opponent.
My mood wasn’t good. I performed poorly. But occasionally that’s just life. The Dane said, You can’t always find your best level.
I made every effort to get rhythm and attempt to regain my bearings. I was able to return in the third, but after wasting two sets like this, you know, it’s late.
In the third set, Rune stepped up his game, hitting strokes with more force and stretched Ruud, who momentarily ran out of answers.
However, the 24-year-old Ruud recovered in the fourth game, and even though Rune saved four match points, the Norwegian won the fifth game to exact revenge for losing to his Scandinavian opponent in Rome last month.
I hope to be stronger there because we have another Grand Slam (Wimbledon) coming up, Rune stated.
Now that the clay season is done, I’m thrilled. I’m prepared to go on. Now just concentrate on the grass.
