Holger Rune's mother, Aneke, was more than pleased to see the young Dane reach the third round at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters.
Rune is seeded sixth in the tournament and faced Dominic Thiem in the second round. He won the opening set 6-2 but Thiem fought hard in the second set to stay in the match. The Austrian had two break points when Rune was serving for the match at 5-4.
However, Rune was not to be denied on the day, as he held his serve to win 6-4 and book his place in the third round of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The 19-year-old's mother took to social media to express her delight at his first match on clay this season. She shared a video of Rune winning match point on her Instagram stories and wrote:
"A win for Holger."
Rune said after the match that he was happy with how he handled his first match on clay this season to win it.
"It's my first match back on clay so there were a few adjustments to make. But I'm all in all happy with how I handled the situation on court. Dominic already played a couple of matches [on clay]. He's a dangerous player. He can hit winners from anywhere in the court so I had to be sharp, move well and play well," he said.
The World No. 9 has now won 15 out of 22 matches this season.
Holger Rune will face Matteo Berrettini in 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters 3R
After defeating Dominic Thiem, Holger Rune will next take on Matteo Berrettini in the third round of the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters. The Italian came back from a set down to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-4 in the second round.
Rune and Berrettini will lock horns for the third time in their careers, with their head-to-head currently tied at 1-1. Their last meeting came in the quarterfinals of the Acapulco Open, where the Dane was leading 6-0, 1-0 when he was forced to retire due to an injury.
The winner of the match between Rune and Berrettini will square off against either third seed Daniil Medvedev or 13th seed Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
If Rune manages to defeat Berrettini, he will reach the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 event on clay for the first time in his career.