Rune beats Alex de Minaur, set semi-final clash with Zverev in Paris

Holger Rune defeated Alex de Minaur in a thrilling quarterfinal in the French capital on Friday, preserving his modest chances of making it to the Nitto ATP Finals.

The 21-year-old Dane battled past De Minaur in a thrilling 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 triumph in two hours and twenty-eight minutes in a baseline match in Paris.

Rune reached his eighth ATP Masters 1000 semi-final after locking in during the lengthy exchanges and overcoming a break advantage in the third set.

“He was putting so much up against me. He was making every ball with quality, deep in the court and the court is quite fast here,” Rune said. “I had to adjust my game a little bit and it was a constant battle but how I treated the last couple of games was very good. I went for it, I got it and I am very happy.”

Rune is 12-1 at the indoor hard event and defeated Novak Djokovic to earn his first Masters 1000 title in Paris in 2022. Rune can still make it to the Nitto ATP Finals despite now sitting in 13th place with 3,025 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. De Minaur, who is now in eighth place with 3,745 points, is hoping to make his debut in Turin and holds the final Nitto ATP Finals qualification berth.

Rune would close the gap on De Minaur by 120 points if he were to win his second Paris victory in three years. Next week, Rune will compete in the ATP 250 in Metz, while the Australian De Minaur will try to earn more points at the ATP 250 event in Belgrade.

Elsewhere, Holger Rune’s opponent in the semi finals Alexander Zverev became just the third active player to reach 20 ATP Masters 1000 semi-finals on Friday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas to end the Greek’s ATP Finals hopes after a 7-5, 6-4  victory.

Zverev, who joins Novak Djokovic (78) and Rafael Nadal (76) as a 20-time Masters 1000 semi-finalist, also became the first player born in the 1990s to earn 100 Top 20 wins (100-101).