Holger Rune battled past Jannik Sinner 1-6 7-5 7-5 after 2 hours and 46 minutes in a thrilling semifinal match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters to reach his second Masters 1000 final.
Rune is within a win of clinching his second Masters 1000 title after beating Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Bercy Rolex Masters last November. He will chase his second Masters 1000 title on Sunday against Andrey Rublev, who beat Taylor Fritz in three sets.
Rune won his 17th match of the season to improve to 2-0 in his head-to-head matches against Sinner.
Before the semifinal Rune had dropped his serve only once in his 19 service games, but Sinner broke him twice to race out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set. The Italian player served out the first set 6-1 in the seventh game.
Rune earned his first break in the second game and consolidated it with a hold of serve to open up a 3-0 lead before the match was suspended for 47 minutes due to rain.
After the match resumed, Sinner won three consecutive games from 2-5 down to draw level to 5-5, after saving two set points on serve at 4-5.
Rune capitalized on Sinner’s errors to win 8 of the last 10 points to seal the second set 7-5 levelling the match.
Both players held their service games in the first three games of the third set. Rune earned a break point winner with a drop shot winner in the fourth game, but Sinner hit his first ace of the match to save it. Sinner faced two more break points, but Sinner saved them to hold on his serve. Both players traded holds to draw level to 3-3.
Sinner fended off two break points for 5-4 before Rune held to love to take a 5-4 lead. Sinner held serve to draw level to 5-5.
Rune earned the match point after a net volley by Rune and a net ball by Sinner. The Danish star, who had converted just two of 13 break points during the match, closed out the match on his 14th break point in the 12th game, when Sinner hit the net.
Rune is chasing his second clay title following his triumph in Munich in 2022.
“It was quite unbelievable. Jannik started firing. , hitting a lot of winners., and he has been in good form the past few months. I had to dig deep and find solutions, which I did well. It was fun to play like this”, said Rune.
