Holger Rune keeps Turin hopes alive, outlasts Alex de Minaur in Paris-Bercy thriller

Move over, Emily in Paris, tennis fans are now streaming Holger in Bercy: Holger Rune closed out an impressive win over Alex de Minaur, defeating the Aussie, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the Rolex Paris Masters semifinal.

The 2022 champion and No. 13 seed has an outside shot of qualifying for a second straight ATP Finals and needs to keep winning to stay alive. De Minaur, who leapfrogged Andrey Rublev for No. 8 in the PIF ATP Race to Turin, missed out on an opportunity to move even higher in the standings, the No. 9 seed exiting after a two-hour, 25-minute thriller on Center Court.

Rune has made the most of the final Masters 1000 tournament of the season, capitalizing on a section of the draw vacated by top seed Jannik Sinner and rallying from a set down to avenge an Australian Open loss to lucky loser Arthur Cazaux to reach a third straight quarterfinal in Paris-Bercy.

The former world No. 4 made a major career breakthrough at this tournament when he stunned then-No. 1 Novak Djokovic to win his first Masters title, but has struggled with injuries and inconsistency since earning his ranking peak last summer. De Minaur, by contrast, has become one of the toughest outs in men’s tennis, racking up three major quarterfinal appearances this season and making his Top 10 debut back in February.

Looking to cap his breakthrough year with a first trip to Turin, De Minaur battled into the last eight with a big win over Jack Draper, defeating the US Open semifinalist in three sets to put himself in position to qualify for the ATP Finals. A win over Rune, who he’d beaten in their last two meetings, was projected to put him up to No. 6 in the Race rankings—all but guaranteeing his qualification.

But Rune, who will likely need to win in Paris plus another title next week to reach the Top 8, proved indomitable in the match’s toughest moments on Friday. The 21-year-old Dane nabbed the lone break of the first set and shook off losing the second set to keep fighting through the third.

An early exchange of breaks had both men on even footing in the decider, but Rune had the upper hand on return, breaking De Minaur a final time to ultimately serve out the match at love.

Still No. 8 in the Race, De Minaur still has a shot of remaining in position for the ATP Finals provided Grigor Dimitrov, who faces former champion Karen Khachanov later on Friday, doesn't win the title. De Minaur will compete at an ATP 250 event in Belgrade next week with the hope of further building to his ranking point total.

Standing between Rune and a second Paris final is No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev, who eliminated Stefanos Tsitsipas from Turin contention with a 7-5, 6-4 won earlier in the afternoon. Zverev leads their head-to-head 2-1, but Rune pushed Zverev to five sets at Roland Garros in June.