Quote of the Day: Holger Rune hoping for “less drama” in Casper Ruud rematch

WATCH: Holger Rune speaks with Tennis Channel after defeating Francisco Cerundolo in the 2023 Roland Garros fourth round.

There was no shortage of drama during Holger Rune’s fourth-round battle against Francisco Cerundolo at Roland Garros, which saw the No. 6 seed need a match tiebreaker and almost four hours—three hours and 59 minutes, to be exact—to see off the Argentine.

“I told myself in the beginning of the match tiebreak just to enjoy the moment, try to play my tennis. See how it goes,” Rune said after the 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory. He struck 48 winners en route to his career first five-set victory on Monday.

“At least go off the court with a smile on my face, because I played a good match.”

But before the terre battue dust even had time to settle, tennis fans and pundits were already honing in on the drama that was still to come. In the quarterfinals, Rune will get another shot at Norway’s Casper Ruud—a rematch of last year’s contentious all-Nordic clash:

Q. Is it fair to say that the match last year had a lot of incidents? …How would you describe your relationship with Casper now? I know you beat him recently. Is this a bit of a revenge mission for you?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, I mean, obviously there was drama last year and I hope we can make less drama this year. We played each other in Rome. It was a good match, I think. (smiling)

He's a good player. I respect him. There's no problem. We're good. Should be a match without problems, hopefully. Just looking forward to it.

You know, obviously I lost last year. And it's gonna be the same scenario: We play in a quarterfinal—maybe night session again, maybe not. We'll see.

Hopefully I can turn it around and make it different this year.

Of course, we’re talking about “ja-gate”, when tensions boiled over after Rune and Ruud’s quarterfinal last year’s Roland Garros. The match was already tense as Ruud was visibly unamused by his opponent’s antics throughout, and he was seen rolling his eyes and shaking his head during their frosty handshake.

But the real drama came later, when Rune accused the Norwegian player and his team of excessively celebrating in the locker room. Ruud, who had just reached his first Grand Slam semifinal, was accused of shouting “ja!” in the Dane’s direction—an allegation that Ruud has strongly denied.

While we’ll never know just what happened in the Roland Garros locker room that night, we’ll definitely be in for a treat when these two meet again on Wednesday. The pair recently faced off in Rome, with Rune claiming his first victory against Ruud to improve his head-to-head record to 1-4 (all clay-court matches).