INDIAN WELLS: Holger Rune rallied from a set down to save a match point to beat former champion Taylor Fritz 2-6 7-6(2) 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals where he will face fourth seed Daniil . Medvedev.
Rune surrendered the opening set in 32 minutes and looked down the count as 2022 winner Fritz made it 5-4 and 40-30 in the next, but the seventh-seeded Dane produced a crucial hold before forcing the tiebreak.
The 20-year-old upped the ante to level the match at one set apiece and break his American opponent for the first time with a quick-fire 3-1 lead in the decider.
With Fritz languishing in the California desert, Rune completed the comeback by closing out the match on serve and finishing with a fiery forehand winner.
“It was crazy. I really stayed in the moment and fought, I tried to play better point by point and at the end of the second set I managed to raise the level quite amazingly, which meant everything for the match,” said Rune. .
“He controlled it in the first set and for a long time in the second, so I’m glad I could keep fighting. I still believed that I would find my rhythm one day. It was on the edge.” but I managed to find it, which was nice.’
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Another Rune is last year’s runner-up Medvedev, who outclassed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-4 with a near-flawless performance to stay on course for his first title of the year after falling in the Australian Open final.
Rune, who shared two career meetings with the Russian last year, said he would come out with all guns blazing.
“I’m an attacking player. I don’t care who I play with, I’m still going to attack,” Rune said.
“Against Daniil, it’s a completely different match than today. The only similarity between him and Fritz is the big serve. Fritz is close to the baseline, while Medvedev is far away.”
“The bear on this surface is as dangerous as Fritz. I’ll just recover and trust myself like I did today.”
