Holger Rune has progressed to the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters following a three-set victory over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
The Danish performer romped through the first set before being pinned back by the big-serving Frenchman, who claimed an entertaining second-set tie-breaker.
It was Rune who managed to dig in and claim the win, however, taking the final set 6-3 after finding a way to cope with Mpetshi Perricard.
Rune has been praised for what he did in training against Novak Djokovic and he will fancy his chances of success this week with a host of players out of the tournament.
Rune is still an outside punt for the ATP Finals, and certainly winning the title here would help his chances of participating in Turin.
Holger Rune pushes for rule change that most players would welcome
The Shanghai Masters has given the ATP more questions than answers, given the number of players who have withdrawn or been forced to retire from matches.
There is definitely an argument for the ATP to follow suit with the WTA and allow players a 10-minute heat break in certain tournaments, should the match go the distance.
Rune certainly agrees and he thinks that the decision to implement such a rule in the ATP would be popular with the vast majority of the players on tour.
He said in his press conference: “Yeah, I think there should be a heat rule like there are in the Grand Slam. I think every player would agree on that. Today was better, as you say, today was less hot. But again, it was less hot, but if it was a more normal temperature, today would be very hot. I think it was like 31 degrees and very humid. But compared to the other days, it was pretty brutal.
“So I think there should be some kind of rule. We can handle a certain amount of heat because, you know, we are fit, we’re strong, we’re mentally strong as well, but there’s always a limit. I think it’s also important to take care of your health. We need to survive. I think some kind of rule, you know, not that we should stop if it’s just more than this, but like the Grand Slam, you know, they have a feeling on when it’s a little bit too much, and we wait a little bit to see if it drops.”
Holger Rune hails Mpetshi Perricard’s serve
This has been a good tournament for Mpetshi Perricard who managed to beat Taylor Fritz in the previous round to set up a date with Rune.
It’s clear that his serve is capable of blowing players off the court and ultimately, he must now work on the other parts of his game to start making business stages of tournaments.
Rune said on his serve: “He has a big serve. He served very, very hard. Also, when he hits his spots, it’s impossible to play. Every time he makes a slight mistake, I just try to be there.
“I had a little bit of an adjustment on my returns, but very small because I was returning very well all the match. It was just a little change, but again I just tried to play it low when I could, so he had to hit up on the next shot.”
Rune will now look forward to his quarterfinal match and given that he’s one of the best ranked players left in the draw, the 22-year-old must seize the opportunity to grab another ATP Masters 1000 event.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
