Holger Rune continued to lay down an early marker in his 2024 season on Friday at the Brisbane International presented by Evie, where the top seed rode a fast start to down James Duckworth 6-2, 7-6(6) and reach the semi-finals.
The 20-year-old Rune reeled off five games in a row to seize the opening set inside Pat Rafter Arena before digging deep to clinch a second-set tie-break and seal a one-hour, 46-minute triumph in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with home favourite Duckworth.
“I thought it was a great match,” said Rune, who struck 33 winners, including 13 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I started very strong with some good level tennis. I felt like I was still in control of the second set. I had some chances to break and didn’t manage to do it, but I stayed there and was strong in the tie-break mentally and physically, and played some good tennis.”
Getting his new year off to a bang💥
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) January 5, 2024
@holgerune serving rockets at the start of 2024🚀
13 aces today and 35 & counting in Brisbane 🎯#TennisInsights | @atptour | #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/lqJb89j4Yd
Rune started the year at No. 8 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and battled to his opening wins of the year, against Max Purcell and Alexander Shevchenko, in three sets. The Dane will look to continue his impressive start to the year in his semi-final against Roman Safiullin, who defeated Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(4), 6-2 earlier on Friday.
“I saw he was really close to losing against [Alexei] Popyrin,” said Rune of Safiullin. “This is tennis, he is still here even though he could have lost that one. It’s going to be hopefully a great match. I’m curious to see how he is playing. I had a little bit of a feel from it in the first round of the doubles, but singles is different and I’m just looking forward to playing the semi-final tomorrow.”
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Second seed Grigor Dimitrov also booked his spot in the last four with a straight-sets win. The Bulgarian overcame Rinky Hijikata 6-1, 6-4 to reach his fifth Brisbane semi-final. By improving to 21-6 at the ATP 250, Dimitrov extended his lead as the player with the most wins in tournament history.
The 2017 champion’s next opponent in Queensland could be Rafael Nadal, who plays home favourite Jordan Thompson later on Friday.
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