Holger Rune explains why he started thinking about Roger Federer during his French Open second round

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Holger Rune shared that he began thinking about Roger Federer during his five-set epic at the French Open.

The Dane found himself in a titanic tussle with Flavio Cobolli in his second round match at the clay court Grand Slam.

After securing a routine win over Dan Evans in round one, the 21-year-old seemed to be on the verge of securing a comfortable win over the Italian.

But the World number 53 battled his way back and levelled the match before holding a five-point lead in the final set tiebreak. But Rune produced a comeback of his own, thanks to some inspiration from the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

Holger Rune named Roger Federer as the catalyst for his latest win

Court 14 erupted when Rune closed out a mammoth 6-4 6-3 3-6 3-6 7-6(6) victory to reach round three at the French Open.

After losing his two-set lead and the first five points of the final set tiebreak, the 13th seed did not panic and produced some solid tennis to reverse the deficit.

He credited Roger Federer for success, as memories of watching his epic win over Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open in 2020 crept into his mind.

“All of a sudden, a match came into my mind when Roger played Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open,” said Rune via Eurosport.

“He won in a five-set match tie-break as well, and Sandgren had many chances. It was kind of in my mind. I don’t know how it appeared, it just did.

“I just switched my brain off a little bit and just tried to go for my shots. Roger is always very relaxed when he’s playing. I told myself, okay, let’s try to relax. Then I started to hit my shots better, more freedom, got back on track.”

When did Roger Federer play Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open?

In 2020, Federer competed at the Australian Open for the final time and in the quarter-finals, he took on America’s Tennys Sandgren.

Federer produced arguably the greatest houdini act of his career by saving seven match points, three of which came in a fourth set tiebreak, to claim a 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 victory.

This meant he stayed unbeaten in quarter-finals at Melbourne Park and won his sixth successive five-set match at the Grand Slam.

”You’ve got to get lucky sometimes,” Federer said at the time. “I was just hoping that maybe he wasn’t going to smash a winner, if he misses one or two [match points], who knows what’s going to happen? I think I got incredibly lucky today.

”As the match went on, I started to feel better and just tried to play. I believe in miracles. There could be rain… Just let him finish me off in style, and he didn’t do that. I’m still standing here and obviously just very happy.”