Holger Rune beat Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 after 75 minutes at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers to achieve his first hard-court win since reaching the Indian Wells final last March after withdrawing from his opening match in Washington.
Rune spent three days in Washington working with André Agassi after withdrawing from the DC Citi Open.
Both players did not face any break points in the first set and held their service games en route to the tie-break. Mpetchi Perricard saved a set point at 5-6 with a forehand winner and hit a powerful serve to take a 7-6 lead. Rune saved the set point with his powerful serve and drew Mpetchi Perricard’s mistake to earn his second set point at 8-7. Rune sealed the first set after 44 minutes, when Mpetchi Perricard hit a double fault
Rune won five service games in the second set and earned three break points at 2-1. The Danish player converted his third break after Mpetchi Perricard made a double fault. Rune held serve with an ace to open up a 4-1 lead and served for the match at 5-3. He held at love with a volley winner securing his spot in the third round. Rune dropped just three of 21 second-serve points.
“I haven’t served like this in a while. I’ve been working on some small adjustments on my serve and it seems to be feeling good. It felt really good and I trusted it all the way. When he’s hitting those big serves, there’s not much to do, so it’s just about focusing on your own serve. I think I did that well. I’m just very happy with the match in general”, said Rune.
