By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) – Fearless Dane Holger Rune’s stature in world tennis continued to grow on Monday as he stayed calm and collected in the face of adversity to ride out a 3-6 7-6(6) 7-6(4) 6-3 fourth round win over Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon.
The Danish sixth seed missed out on converting any of the six break points he earned in the opening set, and then found himself a set and 4-2 down after surrendering his own serve with two successive double faults.
Through all that mental turmoil, he never lost belief and the 20-year-old came storming back with some phenomenal shot making as he became the first Dane in 65 years to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
It was little wonder he was left screaming into the skies and thumping his chest after the near 3-1/2 hour battle ended when Dimitrov’s backhand floated into the tramlines on Rune’s first match point.
He will next meet either fellow 20-year-old and world number one Carlos Alcaraz or big-hitting Italian Matteo Berrettini for a place in the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Christian Radnedge)
