Rune Victorious In Stockholm Debut
Holger Rune continued his strong indoor season with a fast start at the Stockholm Open on Monday. Making his debut at the ATP 250 in Sweden, the #NextGenATP Dane scored a 7-5, 6-2 win against Thiago Monteiro.
The seventh seed did not face a break point in the match and won five of six games to take command from 4-5 in the opening set. He secured his third break late in the second set before serving out the match to love, finishing with a 86 per cent (31/35) win rate on first serve.
Fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan, Rune could pass Lorenzo Musetti for third place with a deep run in Stockholm — though the Italian is competing in Naples this week. Both men have secured qualification for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.
After reaching the Metz quarter-finals and the Sofia final, Rune will seek a third straight indoor quarter-final when he takes on Cristian Garin in the second round. Garin also advanced on Monday with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Aussie Jason Kubler.
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Aslan Karatsev set up a second-round showdown with second seed Cameron Norrie by easing past Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2 to close the day's play on Stockholm's centre court.
In the lone three-setter of the day, Maxime Cressy edged Ilya Ivashka 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. The American will next face top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in what will be the Greek's opening match.