Holger Rune falls on the grass switch and walks out of Jordan Thompson’s Queen’s Club.
After losing against Jordan Thompson 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Monday, Holger Rune withdrew from the Cinch Championships at the first hurdle.
It took the No. 7 seed two hours and six minutes on Center Court in Queen’s Club to overcome the Australian, who has struggled with uneven performances throughout 2024.
Rune lost in the fourth round of the Roland Garros competition, after he had led eventual winner Alexander Zverev by two sets to one. The young Dane’s rating dropped from No. 7 to No. 15 in the previous six months after peaking at No. 4 last summer due to early exits in
Rune, who was still just 21 years old, was hoping to go from clay to grass with ease after reaching his first Wimbledon quarterfinal in 2023 and losing to eventual winner Carlos Alcaraz. When Rune faced Thompson for the first time, he took the first set with the only break of the match and led his way to a second-set tiebreaker. However, in the Sudden Death, his opponent, who was ranked lower, turned the tables and tied the match at one set each.
With back-to-back victories over Zverev and Casper Ruud to win his first ATP title in Los Cabos, Thompson began the 2024 season with an incredible victory over Rafael Nadal at the Brisbane International. Thompson is currently enjoying his best season to date, having peaked at No. 32 in the rankings back in February and winning his first Masters 1000 title in doubles with friend and neighbor Sebastian Korda.
In the final, the 30-year-old Australian jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Rune and maintained composure to win his 11th career Top 20 match. He also secured a prospective future match against former world No. 1 Andy Murray. In his second grass-court match of the season, Murray will take on Thompson’s compatriot Alexei Popryin on Tuesday at Center Court. Murray lost to Marcos Giron in the opening round of the BOSS Open in Stuttgart.
The third seed With a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, Grigor Dimitrov got off to a strong start in his Queen’s Club campaign. He will now await the winner of an exciting first-round match between Sebastian Korda and Karen Khachanov.
