The 19-yea-old Holger Rune is playing his seventh Masters 1000 tournament in Paris this week. The young Dane cracked the top-20 this week and has no intention of stopping there! Holger defeated five rivals at the Paris Masters to advance into his first Masters 1000 final, standing as the second-youngest player to achieve that in Paris after Andrei Medvedev! Rune fended off three match points in the opening round against Stan Wawrinka and rattled off four consecutive top-10 triumphs to find himself in the title clash. If he wins the title against Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rune will find himself in the ATP Race top-10 and stand as the second alternative at the ATP Finals! At 19 years and six months, Holger is the sixth-youngest Masters 1000 finalist behind Michael Chang, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Richard Gasquet and Andrei Medvedev. The Dane toppled Hubert Hurkacz, Andrey Rublev and Carlos Alcaraz to find himself in the last four.
A teenager Holger Rune will play for the Paris Masters title on Sunday.
Rune’s fourth top-10 victory in a row came against an in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime, beating the Canadian 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 27 minutes for a career-best result. Felix beat Holger in the last week’s Basel final, and the younger player was ready to serve revenge. Thus, Rune will compete in his fourth straight ATP final, all on an indoor court. Holger served at 79% and dropped 11 points in nine service games. Auger-Aliassime failed to create a break point and could not endure the pressure and reach at least one tie break. Rune turned 44% of the return points into three breaks from eight opportunities, enough to control the scoreboard and march over the finish line. Holger had 20 winners and 16 unforced errors, dominating from the baseline and outplaying Felix in the shortest range up to four strokes.
Auger-Aliassime netted a routine forehand drive-volley winner at the net in the encounter’s third game to find himself 2-1 behind. The Dane confirmed the lead in game four when his rival sprayed a backhand error and fired a service winner in game six for 4-2. Rune held at love in game eighth to remain in front and wrapped up the opener with a hold at 15 in game ten for 6-4 in 44 minutes. Felix missed a forehand at the start of the second set to experience a break and find himself a set and a break down. Rune pushed strong on the return in game three and delivered a break when Auger-Aliassime netted an easy volley at the net. The Dane held at love for 4-0 and moved 5-1 up with another comfortable hold two games later. A teenager served for the victory in game eight and produced a hold at 15 after forcing the rival’s mistake to advance into his first Masters 1000 final.