By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Danish sixth seed Holger Rune got a helping hand from the umpire with a missed but glaring double bounce to battle past Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4 1-6 7-6(7) on Monday and reach the French Open last eight for the second year in a row.
He will next face Norway’s fourth seed Casper Ruud in a repeat of last year’s quarter-final.
Rune got off to a strong start, powering to a quick 4-1 lead with Cerundolo struggling with his opponent’s serve that was on average more than 20kph faster than his own at that stage.
The 20-year-old comfortably held serve to go 5-2 up but started getting sloppy before snatching the first set in a tiebreak.
But the mercurial Dane had by then lost the edge on his serve with Cerundolo breaking him to love to go 4-1 up in the second set with a superb heavy topspin lob.
He bagged it but soon the momentum would shift again.
Rune was 2-1 up in the third at 40-all when he clearly failed to get to the ball in time and the second bounce was visible to all but chair umpire Kader Nouni.
With his opponent not admitting to the double bounce, Cerundolo, seething and threatening the umpire “with a fine”, was broken on the next point, as Rune eventually went 4-1 up.
Cerundolo was still fuming, mumbling to himself, when he launched a comeback to level but conceded the third set when Rune whipped a forehand down the line.
The 24-year-old, however, refused to buckle, snatching a 4-0 lead in the fourth, with Rune’s unforced errors at that stage climbing to 52 and the Dane essentially giving up on the set.
The battle started anew in the fifth with both holding serve until 4-4 and then each being broken once to go to a deciding tiebreak where Rune prevailed.
The Dane has now claimed his second consecutive win over an Argentine opponent in Paris after eliminating Genaro Olivieri in the previous round.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
