After Gael Monfils rallies for Stockholm win, Holger Rune falls to Miomir Kecmanovic

Former Stockholm champion Gael Monfils rallied to win his opener Wednesday evening at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open, before Miomir Kecmanovic closed out play by knocking out top seed Holger Rune.

Needing a protected ranking to get into the draw, the 140th-ranked Monfils overcame Marton Fucsovics, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. The Frenchman navigated his way through a tricky final set, where he saw a break advantage erased and later missed a pair of match points with Fucsovics serving at 4-5. The Hungarian’s hopes of forcing a tie-break were ultimately dashed when he pulled an inside-in forehand wide on match point to drop serve for a fourth time.

The 37-year-old is now 10-10 in tour-level matches this season. Beyond making a debut Laver Cup appearance, Monfils is appearing for the first time since falling in the second round of the US Open to Andrey Rublev. Last weekend, he and wife Elina Svitolina rang in daughter Skaï’s first birthday.

For a place in the quarterfinals, Monfils faces Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic. The 22-year-old previously dispatched No. 8 seed Dan Evans on Tuesday.

Kecmanovic defeated Rune, 7-6 (3), 6-3, to hand the Dane an eighth loss in his last nine matches. Both players initially combined to go 2 for 10 on break points until Kecmanovic pulled away from the world No. 6 with the final four games for his first Top 10 win of the year.

The 24-year-old Serb has reached two finals this season, at Delray Beach and Estoril. He’s looking to win his first title since celebrating his maiden ATP triumph in 2020 at Kitzbuhel.

Rune began the week at No. 8 in the race to the ATP Finals, but could get surpassed by Taylor Fritz depending on the American’s showing at Tokyo's 500-level tournament.