A Heartbreaking End To Holger Rune’s Decade-Long Winning Streak
A Heartbreaking End To Holger Rune’s Decade-Long Winning Streak: The Danish player, Holger Rune, lost a tie breaker to the Spanish player, Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
Holger Rune beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(4), 6-3 in a match on May 30, ending his tournament. He hasn’t won since then.
Denmark’s top ranked player recently lost seven consecutive tournaments, on two different surfaces. He is hitting the ball very poorly in important moments of a match. He is missing a lot of balls that could’ve either given him a break point or win the match right then and there.
Rune Gill and Iago Jaoui played on the opening day, but lost 6-3 in the first set. The 2nd set wasn’t successful for Gill as he found his groove against Italy’s Zapata players. Zapata usually plays aggressively and is super speedy on the court.
Rune had difficulty playing on hard courts, where his speed and agility were not enough to match Zapata’s. Overall, Zapata controlled the match from the baseline – making fast returns on every shorter ball with deep shots. Despite a tough loss for Rune, this might have been a better format for him in North America.
The third seed, Holger Rune, will face World No. 82, Bernabe Zapata Miralles tomorrow in the second round of the 2022 Croatia Open.
Rune’s season has been quite exciting so far. He received a wildcard in the 2022 BMW Open and brought home his first ATP title in defeating Jiri Lehecka, Alexander Zverev, Emil Ruusuvuori and Oscar Otte. When he reaches the final in which Botic van de Zandschulp retired from the middle of the game, Rune knows that this victory can only be the start of something greater.
After entering the ATP top 100 for the first time in January, 2022, Christian won his first match after a second-round appearance at the French Open. After defeating Denis Shapavalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas to advance to the quarterfinals in France, Rune fell to Casper Ruud in four sets. After leaving Paris with a 4-6 record, Rune has yet to register a victory for the remainder of this season.
So far this year, Bernabe Zapata Miralles has made a balance between the Challenger and main draws. He has had a win-loss ratio of around 6 to 10. Zapata was able to enter the main draw at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and his skill level is better than most players from the Challenger circuit.
Zapata Miralles was able to surpass the expectations of himself after he had a successful first round on Day 2 of Roland Garros. He makes it to the fourth round before eventually losing to Alexander Zverev in four sets.
In the first round of the Croatia Open, 15-year-old Croatian Dino Prizmic faced against 17-year-old Spaniard Zapata Miralles. The 15-year old Croatian went down 6-4 to 3-2 in a set, but chose to retire due to an injury suffered later on in the match.
In their first round of the 2021 Moselle Open, Holger Rune defeated Bernabe Zapata 6-0, 6-0. The Dane dominated the Spaniard
Despite being the number three seed, Rune will enter the tournament as preferred. This will be the first match of the tournament for the third seed and he won his first set despite being broken three times. Zapata Miralles has shown that he is ready for a fight after winning his first set despite being broken three times right out of the gates.
With their defensive tendencies and the aggressive athlete Rune, Zapata Miralles will have to secure returns effectively and take control of the points in order for this tennis match to be close. The Spaniard has yet to win against Rune in a game.