Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune Denmark during ATP80 Challenger Verona - Friday, Tennis Internationals in Verona, Italy, August 20 2021 PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRobertoxTommasinix/xIPAx/xx 0
The 19-year-old Holger Rune meets world No. 95 Marc-Andrea Huesler in the semifinals of the 2022 Sofia Open on Sunday.
The talented youngster has been the epitome of grit and determination. He has come out of precarious situations on various instances throughout the tournament.
The Danish tennis pro began his campaign with a tight two-set win against Tim van Rijthoven. Rune followed it up with a come-from-behind victory in the round of 16 against Lorenzo Sonego. After losing the first set, Rune came back to win 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 6-3. Rune notched up another fine victory against Ilya Ivashka in the quarterfinal in three sets. The promising youngster had a stiff task in the semifinal as he was up against two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner. The Italian youngster had to fight hard to win the first set. However, Rune’s performance got better as the match progressed and he eventually advanced to the final when Sinner had to retire with the score at 5-7, 6-4, 5-2 in favor of the world No. 31.
The Swiss tennis pro will have an uphill task when he faces Jannik Sinner in the finals but a win would give him his first tour-level title and there could be no better motivation than that.
Huesler got off to a good start, defeating Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the first round in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. In the round of 16, Huesler had to dig deep to edge past Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The 26-year-old once again showed a lot of grit and determination in the quarter-finals to defeat Kamil Majchrzak 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3. In the semi-finals, he defeated Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 in a very closely-fought encounter.
Marc-Andrea Huesler leads the head-to-head 1-0. He defeated Rune 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 32 of the 2022 Swedish Open.
Prediction: Holger Rune to win in three sets.
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