On a day 3 with predictions respected almost everywhere in the men’s draw, it was Holger Rune who gave the most beautiful and hard-fought battle of the day. The Danish player, after the colorless performance against the German Jan-Lennard Struff which ousted him from the running of the ATP 250 in Munich, took a big risk on his debut in Madrid against the Argentine Mariano Navone, who is doing well on display on clay this season.
In the first set the South American was more brilliant and skilled in the crucial moment: in a tied situation, at 5-5, the 23 year old once again took advantage of the opportunity to break the serve for the third time from the athlete trained by coach Patrick Mouratoglou, then closing 7-5.
In the second set Navone won the break right at the best moment (5-5) but this time Rune returned the favor and guaranteed himself the tie-break, which rewarded him (7-2) and extended the match. The progress of the decisive set, which gave the victory to Rune, was rather strange: ahead by two breaks at 5-1, the 20-year-old began to get lost at the best moment and struggled quite a bit to close the match.
At 5-4 the Argentine was unable to complete the comeback and completely reopen the game. After a few match points annulled with great class, Holger found the winning streak to win the match in three hours of play and get through to the third round (he will face Tallon Griekspoor).
Alexander Zverev, the fourth main seed, started his journey in the Spanish tournament very well: Sascha defeated the Croatian Borna Coric quite clearly 6-3, 6-2 and now he will have to deal with the unpredictable Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
The other German Struff also advanced, last year’s finalist fresh from last week’s triumph in Munich, who beat the Iberian Munar 6-1, 7-5 and confirmed his positive momentum.
Some top seeds out in the women’s
In the women’s circuit, several seeded teams have been eliminated from the main draw.
Number 6 Qinwen Zheng retired in the second set and allowed Putintseva to advance to the round (7-5, 2-0). The Russian Aleksandrova was also eliminated at the hands of the American Ashlyn Krueger. The 25th of the main draw Marta Kostyuk had to surrender to the Egyptian Sherif 6-2, 7-5.
The Czech Krejcikova (22) suffered a comeback from the Romanian Cristian (2-6, 6-0, 6-2). Even the British Katie Boulter (girlfriend of Alex De Minaur, who will play again on Saturday with Rafael Nadal) didn’t make it, defeated by the American Robin Montgomery.
