Holger Rune rallied from a set down and saved a match point to beat former champion Taylor Fritz 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 on Wednesday and reach the Indian Wells quarter finals, where he will meet fourth seed Daniil Medvedev.
Rune surrendered the opening set and looked down for the count when California man Fritz — the winner here in 2022 against Rafael Nadal — went up 5-4 and 40-30 in the next. The seventh-seeded Dane, however, produced a vital hold before forcing a
tiebreak.
The 20-year-old stepped up a gear to level the contest and broke his American opponent for the first time with some blistering shotmaking for a 3-1 lead in the decider.
With Fritz wilting in the desert, Rune completed the comeback by closing out the match on serve, with a fiery forehand winner.
“It was crazy. I really just stayed in the moment and kept fighting, trying to play better point to point and I managed to raise my level quite amazingly at the end of the second set, which meant everything for the match,” Rune said.
“He was controlling it in the first set and for a long time in the second, so I’m just happy I could keep fighting.”
Up next for Rune is last year’s runner-up Medvedev, who outclassed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4 with a near-flawless display to stay on course for his first title of the year.
Rune, who split his two career meetings with the Russian last year, said he would come out all guns blazing. “I’m a player that’s going to attack. I don’t care who I play, I’m going to attack anyways.
“Against Daniil, it’s a completely different match. The only similarity between him and Fritz is the big serve,” Rune added.
Earlier, Casper Ruud ended Gael Monfils’s run with a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 victory and plays Tommy Paul after the American brought down Luca Nardi, since his win over Novak Djokovic.
