Holger Rune stopped Lorenzo Sonego’s perfect run of six straight-set victories defeating the Italian 6:7(1), 6:4, and 6:3 in a more than 2 hours battle at Sofia Open 2022. It will be the second quarter-final in a row for the 19-year-old Dane after reaching the Top 8 in Metz. It was the French town where Sonego won his third ATP Tour title last week.
The 19-year-old Rune enjoyed a stellar first half of 2022, lifting his first ATP Tour title in Munich and reaching his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, and he seems to have a great time at the end of the season too. The Dane is currently fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan as he seeks to qualify for November’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals for the second straight year.
It will be Rune’s sixth tour-level quarter-final of the season. “I feel very good,” Rune said in his on-court interview. “Today was a tough match… Lorenzo won a title last week, so he had a lot of confidence. I took my chances, played well and stayed in the moment, so I am proud.”
The fifth seed struck 38 winners and won 85 per cent (44/52).
Rune will continue his quest for a second tour-level title when plays Ilya Ivashka in the last eight.
Coming from the qualifiers, Jan-Lennard Struff will make his first appearance in the Sofia Open quarter-finals in his third participation in the Bulgarian capital. Struff was perfect and stopped the fellow player from the qualies – Ugo Humbert 6:3, 6:1 in just an hour. Struff fired 14 winners to Humbert’s 9, breaking the French four times to reach his first tour-level quarter-final of 2022.
Next, Struff will face the third seed and #NextGenATP star Lorenzo Musetti.
