Top seed Holger Rune of Denmark beat Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland 7-6 6-2 in a second-round match of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Thursday. The 19-year-old Dane thus remains on course for his fourth career ATP title.
He will face Gregoire Barrere of France in the quarterfinal on Friday.
How Holger Rune overcame Marc-Andrea Huesler in Montpellier
#1. Rune prevailed in a close first set through his well-timed aggression:
The first set was a well-contested one as neither player lost serve in it. However, Rune was decidedly the more aggressive of the two and often pinned the Swiss back with powerful approach shots before moving into the net to finish points with smashes and volleys.
Rune faced a break point in the set, but managed to save it without much trouble. Huesler’s forehand, meanwhile, typically had a lot of top spin in it, but did not have enough power to put pressure on the Dane.
Still, he managed to make a match of it in the first set and only lost the tie-break very narrowly. Rune finished the set with yet another smash.
#2. Rune overcame Huesler easily in the second set:
Rune, buoyed by his win in the first set, started the second set in a resounding manner by winning the first three games. Huesler was unable to recover from the early reversal and surrendered quite meekly in the end.
Huesler rushed the net quite a few times to put pressure on Rune, but the latter managed to pass him easily on a few occasions. Rune was also more dominant in his service games, winning 80% of the points on his first serve and 76% on his second.
Huesler, meanwhile, only managed to win 66% and 50% of the points on his first and second serves, respectively and was simply not good enough to trouble the Dane.
Main Photo from Getty.
