Holger Rune was badly eliminated in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. The 20-year-old Danish was beaten by the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in three sets and thus said goodbye to the red clay of the Spanish capital with great anticipation, saying goodbye before entering the round of 16. The number 12 in the ATP ranking, who had suffered on his debut against the Argentine Mariano Navone, accusing among other things the organizers of having sabotaged him by removing a string from his racket, bowed in front of a solid and decidedly lucid opponent, capable of prevailing with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Holger Rune, who before the trip to the Iberian crushed brick had lost against Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals of Monte Carlo (with his usual over the top attitude before, during and after the match), will therefore not be able to fight for a luxury result and clearly its elimination changes the characteristics of that part of the board. In the round of 16, in fact, the Russian Andrey Rublev (seeded number 7 in the seeding) will meet Griekspoor (assuming he overcomes the Davidovich Fokina obstacle first).
Everything points to a quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz, who will start as favorite against the Brazilian Seyboth Wild (but he shouldn’t underestimate him) and the German Jan-Lennard Struff. Whoever manages to get out of this segment could face the German Alexander Zverev in the semi-final, favorite first against the Canadian Denis Shapovalov and then against the winner of Paul-Cerundolo, but beware of a hypothetical quarter-final against one of Hurkacz, Altmaier, Baez and Fritz.
The elimination of Holger Rune does not change Jannik Sinner’s scoreboard, given that the Italian tennis player is on the other side. The South Tyrolean champion will return to the field on Monday 29 April to face the Russian Pavel Kotov, then a possible eighth against the winner of Cobolli-Khachanov, while in the quarter-finals the challenge to the Norwegian Casper Ruud seems very likely (favourite against Norrie and then against the winner of Mensik-Auger Aliassime). In the semi-final there could be Rafael Nadal, who seems to be recovering and could start as favorite against Daniil Medvedev…
