Tennis: Rune offers Sinner and joins Rublev in the Monte-Carlo final

The Danish Holger Rune, 9th in the world, qualified for the final of the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo on Saturday by beating the Italian Jannik Sinner (8th) 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 and will face the Russian Andrey Rublev (6th) for the title.

At 19, Rune has already won a Masters 1000, last year in Paris where he beat Novak Djokovic in the final.

In their only previous meeting, last October in the semi-finals in Sofia, Sinner had given up in the third set.

This time, the match went well to the end and the level of play only increased.

Rune is the first player under 20 to reach the final in Monte Carlo since Rafael Nadal in 2006: at 19, the Spaniard then beat Roger Federer in the final to clinch the second of his eleven record titles in the Principality. He had won the first the previous year at age 18.

In front of a public rather in favor of the Italian but whose Danish part played its role well, Sinner immediately took Rune by the throat, hitting hard, going up to the net, being uncompromising on his serve.

He thus completed the first round in 31 minutes without Rune having seen the slightest clearing.

Feeling the game slip away from him, he even pointed out to the referee that the rain had started to fall again. But not enough to interrupt the game, according to the chair man.

And it was finally in the second set, when the Dane had returned the match by playing it safe to wait for his opponent's fault, that the game was interrupted at 3-0 for Rune.

After 45 minutes of interruption, the game resumed and Rune kept the advantage until leading 5-2. But Sinner came back to 5-5 before the Dane resumed his march forward winning the next two games to level at one set all.

The third set ended the game in apotheosis, the Italian finally finding himself at a loss in the face of the resistance and the aggressiveness of the Dane who raced in the lead throughout the round.

Sinner hit harder and harder but without destabilizing Rune who, while quietly maintaining his face-offs, put the Italian under pressure every time he served.

Having saved three break points at 1-2, then two more at 3-4, Sinner served at 4-5 to avoid defeat. He actually came back to 5-5, but once again his opponent won the next two games, concluding on his first match point after 2:46 of the match.