Holger Rune: How a tennis star performs on the edge (2024)

• World No 1 Novak Djokovic withdraws through injury on Day 10.
• Alcaraz (3) beats Tsitsipas (9), Sinner (2) beats Dimitrov (10).
• Gauff (3) beats Jabeur (8), Swiatek (1) thrashes Vondrousova (5).

Get in touch: livebloguk@theathletic.com

Subscribe to The Athletic using our latest discount code here

There was a moment late Thursday night in Paris. Near midnight, cold and breezy, fans bundled and packed into Court 14, near the western edge of Roland Garros, taking in the latest downturn in the saga of 21-year-old Holger Rune, a prince of Danish tennis.

A two-set lead dissolved into a 5-0 deficit in a fifth-set tiebreak against very young (22) and very green Flavio Cobolli of Italy. Rune was about to sublimate into the night and fall farther from the narrative that launched his stardom-in-waiting. He did nothing of the sort.

In his mind, he was thinking of one of his childhood heroes, Roger Federer, and a famous match at the Australian Open in 2020 against Tennys Sandgren, when the latter earned seven match points, but Federer prevailed, just as Rune did.

Maybe, just maybe, down the line, this match will serve as another kind of microcosm for the rest of his career. Read Matthew Futterman's brilliant piece on Rune below.

Daniil Medvedev holds on to take the first set, 6-4, against Alex de Minaur.

Solid start against the 11th seed.

Daniil Medvedev is 5-4 up in the first set against Alex de Minaur and is serving for the set on Lenglen.

But he's gone 0-15 down...

Sebastian Ofner’s eyes bulged with surprise, though it was the eighth time that Corentin Moutet had hit him with an underarm serve, delighting the baying French crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen throughout his 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 third-round victory on Friday night.

As the Austrian scrambled forward like a cartoon character, feet scraping on the terre battue, he desperately attempted to flick his racket underneath the ball — to no avail. Another underarm serve. Another point lost.

Moutet won 53 of the 79 points he played on serve, and nine of the 12 that he started with tennis’ most controversial trick shot. So it works. Here’s how he used it on Friday night.

Daniil Medvedev has broken Australian Alex de Minaur, pictured, in the first set on Lenglen.

He leads 3-2 and is serving to make it 4-2.

Done and dusted.

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka has just whizzed through a straight-sets win against American Emma Navarro (22), 6-2, 6-3.

She's into the women's singles quarter-finals.

In the men's doubles, Bolelli/Vavassori (11) took the first set 6-3 against Aussies Purcell/Thompson, and are a break up at 3-2 in the second too.

Arevalo/Pavic (19) won their first-set tie-break 7-6(3) against sixth seeds Krawietz/Putz from Germany moments ago, too. Top seeds Granollers/Zeballos have broken Zielinski/Nys (15) and lead 2-0 in the first.

In the women's doubles, Coco Gauff/Siniakova (5) defeated Kolodziejova/Siskova 6-1, 6-2, while Fernandez/Routliffe (9) routed Japanese pair Hozumi/Ninomiya 6-0, 6-1.

Olmos/Panova are leading fourth seeds Krejcikova/Siegemund 5-2 in the first set.

Emma Navarro, pictured, has been broken in the second set by second seed Aryna Sabalenka.

She's just held her serve to make it 2-3, with Sabalenka now serving to make it 4-2.

The first men's singles match of the day is underway on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

Australian Alex de Minaur (11) is serving in the first game against fifth seed, Russian Daniil Medvedev.

Updates from that match - and all the others on - throughout the day, right here on The Athletic.

Coco Gauff was in a weird place a month ago. She was teetering on the edge of greatness and of disaster, and had just lost a winnable round-of-16 clash at the Madrid Open to compatriot Madison Keys, a match including 14 breaks of serve and 13 double faults by Gauff.

At the French Open, she has played four matches, winning eight sets — her most clinical period of the year since winning that one title, in New Zealand in January.

Since that defeat against Marta Kostyuk in Stuttgart, she’s played 12 and won 10. Seven of those wins have been in straight sets.

As The Athletic's Matthew Futterman details here, winning ugly is looking a lot more like winning handsomely. Read more below.

Aryna Sabalenka has just won the first set on Philippe-Chatrier, 6-2 against Emma Navarro.

She looks in imperious form.

AVANESYAN 6-4 0-6 1-6 PAOLINI

And that is a lesson in how quickly a tennis match can turn around.

Jasmine Paolini’s tricky start to the first set is put to bed with a rapid victory. She lost the first four games of the first set - and then won 16 of the next 19, rattling through the deciding set in 31 minutes on Suzanne-Lenglen.

It’s been an excellent run from world No 70, Elina Avanesyan. But the Italian 12th seed now moves onto the quarter-finals.

Waiting for Paolini there: fourth seed, Elena Rybakina, who beat Elina Svitolina earlier this morning.

In the women's doubles, Dolehide/Krawczyk (8) beat Sizikova/Potopova 7-6(3), 6-1, with Kostyuk/Ruse 6-3, 4-3 up on favourites Sorribes Tormo/Bouzkova (7).

Coco Gauff/Siniakova (5) have taken the first set 6-1 against Kolodziejova/Siskova, while Leylah Fernandez/Erin Routliffe (9) are serving for the set at 5-0 up against Hozumi/Ninomiya.

In the men's, Bolelli/Vavassori (11) are 4-1 up on Australians Purcell/Thompson, and it's on serve between Krawietz/Putz (6) and Arevalo/Pavic (19).

Bad news early on for American Emma Navarro - she's been broken in her first service game by the imposing Aryna Sabalenka, and again in her second.

She is 3-0 down in that one - and Sabalenka is serving for 4-0.

After losing the first set 6-4 against unseeded Russian Elina Avanesyan, what 12th seed Jasmine Paolini needed was a strong response. And that's exactly what she got, with a 6-0 second set.

They're into a decider on Lenglen - and it's been a topsy-turvy third set so far.

Avanesyan broke Paolini first up, but Paolini has won the next four games in a row, including two breaks, and is now 4-1 ahead. Two games from the match...

You know those nights when you tell yourself that you’re going to be sensible and not stay out too late — but you kind of know deep down that you will? That’s pretty much how tennis’ Grand Slams feel about ludicrously late finishes.

After the Australian Open’s 4:05am finish last year (and its 3:40am one this time), and the U.S. Open’s 2:50am in September 2022, Roland Garros said, ‘Hold my biere’ in the early hours of Sunday as it recorded its latest ever finish to a day’s play — 3:06am.

Wimbledon, with its 11pm curfew, is the only outlier among the four Grand Slams. Tennis officials say that they are learning, that they are aware that these are farcical finish times. And yet they continue.

Despite the silliness of the situation, it’s not something that the French Open deliberately engineered. Dive deeper with Charlie Eccleshare's piece below.

In the women's singles, as mentioned, Navarro vs Sabalenka is on next after Rybakina beat Svitolina, with Paolini now 4-0 up (and serving for 5-0) in a dominant second set against Avanesyan.

In the men's doubles, Machac/Zhang have beaten Van de Zandschulp/Haase 7-5, 6-2, after Salisbury/Ram beat Pouille/Barrere.

In the women's doubles, Kostyuk/Ruse took the first set 6-3 against Sorribes Tormo/Bouzkova (7), while Dolehide/Krawczyk won their first-set tie-break 7-6(3) against Sizikova/Potopova.

Finally, Alex de Minaur (11) vs Daniil Medvedev (5) is the first men's singles match of the day, set to start on Lenglen when Avanesyan vs Paolini's match is completed.

...is second seed Aryna Sabalenka.

She takes on American Emma Navarro (22) in the women's singles fourth round.

They're getting under way shortly.

And a really strong victory for Kazakhstani Elena Rybakina (4) too.

She's just beaten Elina Svitolina (15) 6-4, 6-3 on show court Philippe-Chatrier.

Safely into the quarter-finals.