“It was kind of in my mind”: The French Open comeback victory of Rune was influenced by Federer
By following Roger Federer’s example, Holger Rune was able to launch his own comeback and advance to the third round of the 2024 Roland Garros.
After Andrey Rublev’s shocking loss to Matteo Arnaldi in the second round of the men’s event, Rune was in danger of becoming the second well-known casualty to exit the French Open in that level.
Another Italian, Flavio Cobolli, put the match at risk of upset by coming back from a two-set deficit to tie the score and force a fifth set.
From there, as he led 5-0 in the pivotal 10-point tie-break, the underdog appeared to be in position for a historic five-set victory. But the Dane won nine of the next 11 points to battle his way to match point.
Rune appeared relieved when Cobolli mishandled the decisive forehand, and his coaching staff, under the direction of Patrick Mouratoglou, was ecstatic.
According to Tennis Majors, Rune told reporters at his post-match press conference that he took inspiration from Roger Federer’s equally impressive victory over Tennys Sandgren at the 2020 Australian Open.
“Suddenly, a match between Roger and Tennys Sandgren from the Australian Open sprang to mind. Sandgren had numerous opportunities, and he also prevailed in the five-set match tiebreak. I had that sort of in my head. It just emerged; I have no idea how it achieved that.”
The storyline was nearly identical despite the stark differences in the settings. Rune’s childhood hero, Roger Federer, had to save an incredible seven match points in the fourth-set tie-break in order to win the fifth set. The twenty-one-year-old said It paid off to give himself the opportunity to take risks and not worry about failing.