World No.13 Holger Rune, crowned in 2022 at Bercy, returned to the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Paris at the expense of No.10 Alex de Minaur, beaten 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 on Friday.
The young Dane will face world No.3 Alexander Zverev on Saturday for a place in the final.
Even beaten, De Minaur took advantage of his Parisian week to narrowly place himself among the top 8 in the Race, the ranking established over the calendar year which determines the eight qualified for the end-of-year Masters (10-17 November in Turin), with 3,745 points.
But Grigor Dimitrov, still in the running in Paris (3,340 points before his quarter-final), or even Andrey Rublev (3,720 pts), and Holger Rune, if he wins again in the Parisian room (3,025 pts with his half -final), can still believe it. There will remain up to 250 points to be gleaned next week in Belgrade and Metz.
Not to mention the question mark around the participation or not of Novak Djokovic, who chose not to play in Paris this week.
In the first set, a break, to lead 3 games to 2, was enough for Rune to go halfway to the last four.
From 4 everywhere, 0-30 on his serve, to 5-4 0-40 on that of his opponent, De Minaur managed to prolong the debates until a decisive set by converting his second set point with a volley. right.
The 25-year-old Australian made up for a break by recovering at 3 all, but Rune had the last word by once again seizing his opponent's serve to win after almost two and a half hours of play. .
