A long medical timeout ensued as physios raced to address the 19-year-old’s injured wrist and ankle, but Rune showed remarkable durability on resumption. After racing through the second set, he ultimately overcame the big-serving Frenchman, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (5) in two hours and nine minutes.
Rune came into 2023 riding high from a late-season surge that took saw him earn a historic Masters 1000 victory in Paris-Bercy, knocking out five Top 10 players—including Novak Djokovic in a thrilling three-set final.
“Obviously Paris gave me a lot of confidence, knowing that I could beat these top guys at one of the best tournaments we have in the world,” he said, having started 2022 ranked outside the Top 100 and ended it with a career-high of No. 10.
“I feel good. I feel like I have a lot of confidence. First, I have to think one match at a time. Everybody is playing good, and everybody wants to win, because it is one of the four biggest tournaments in the world.
“It's a big event, and it puts pressure on everybody, and it's just to see who is handling it the best.”
While his first-season castmates have largely struggled with that pressure, Rune has carried that Paris momentum into the best-of-five format with relative ease, winning his first two rounds in straight sets and outfoxing dangerous floater Maxime Cressy to put himself a win away from the second week.
Taking on Humbert, whom he beat twice in 2022, Rune shook off a love break at 5-2 in the opening set to serve it out on his second opportunity on John Cain Arena. Things indeed looked dire early in the second when he took his tumble, but Humbert couldn’t capitalize, throwing in a double fault on break point to hand initiative back to the Dane.
A tense third set followed as both men traded holds to an inevitable tiebreak. Twice roaring back from mini-break deficits, Rune got to match point with a forehand putaway and drew one last error from Humbert to end a binge-worthy contest that had drama, suspense, and a little bit of razzle-dazzle—tallying a near-even 26 winners and 28 unforced errors over three sets.
“It was extremely tough, especially after the fall, but maybe it was better than expected because I relaxed a lot!” he said. “But in the third set, Ugo was playing super aggressive and serving unbelievably, all on the lines. The tiebreak was small margins, and I’m glad I was brave to win the match in three sets. It feels good.”
Looking to build on his quarterfinal finish at last year's Roland Garros, might Rune break the Netflix curse before his episode airs? First he'll have to face No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev in a rematch of their Paris-Bercy encounter.
"It's a lot of business, but I have to be honest, I take a chocolate brownie once in a while!" he joked as the crowd let out the now infamous "Ruuune" cheers. "I try to stay healthy, do as much recovery as I can and celebrate the match I won today but mostly focus on the next match because every match is super tough and you have to be focused."
