ATP Basel: opening win! Holger Rune takes top form to Basel
Holger Rune has successfully started the ATP 500 event in Basel. The Dane showed a strong performance against Alex de Minaur at times and won his second round ticket 6: 2 and 7: 5.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Oct 26, 2022, 02:39 pm
By Michael Rothschädl from Basel
Holger Rune had the pleasure of opening the third day of play at the Swiss Indoors with his opening duel with Alex de Minaur. An obvious decision by those responsible for the tournament, since both Rune and Felix Auger-Aliassime (who will also be in action in the St. Jakobshalle on Wednesday) were still active on Sunday in Stockholm and Antwerp - and were successful with final victories.
Although the Dane Rune still flies a little under the radar - which is mainly due to the incredible successes of Carlos Alcaraz of the same age - one thing is certain: Rune is currently in impressive late form. At his last two ATP events, the 19-year-old has reached a final and won a title.
Rune with a dream start
Rune was able to take this self-confidence with him to Basel - in front of neo-coach Patrick Mouratoglou. The Dane went into action against Alex de Minaur - who according to the seeding list is even ahead of the youngster - like firefighters, broke the Australian in his first two service games and quickly pulled away with a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Rune then served strongly and made far more pace from the baseline than de Minaur was capable of. The logical consequence: After a little more than half an hour, section one went clearly 6:2 to the favorites from Denmark. While Rune fired a whopping 13 winners in the direction of de Minaur, it was only one for the Australian.
Rune with good draw
The start of the second round was marked by more mistakes on the part of the Dane - and by Alex de Minaur, who fought his way into the game visibly better. The Australian was initially able to thwart break chances early on, but then left opportunities for his first break of the game when the score was 2-1.
Rune held up well in this phase and was able to prevent Alex de Minaur from breaking - knowing full well that the chance would come. And she came. When the score was 5:5, de Minaur threw a lot on his own serve, Rune got the decisive break and a short time later fixed the 6:2 and 7:5 success.
In the round of 16, Holger Rune now has to deal with the winner in the duel between Ugo Humbert and Jenson Brooksby. A possible opponent in the quarter-finals is Arthur Rinderknech, conqueror of Cilic. After Casper Ruud's elimination against Stan Wawrinka, the field in Rune's half is also quite open for a deep run. And the Dane is more than capable of that in his current form.