Stat of the Day: Holger Rune records milestone 100th win of career in Montpellier

Holger Rune made a winning start to his week in Montpellier on Thursday night, defeating Spanish qualifier Pablo Llamas Ruiz in his opening match at the ATP 250 indoor event, 7-5, 6-2.

And it was a milestone win: the 100th tour-level win of his career.

The 20-year-old Rune is the fourth man born in 2000 or later to reach 100 career wins, and just the second man under 21.

MEN BORN IN 2000 OR LATER WITH 100+ WINS (tour-level):
197: Jannik Sinner [born in 2001]
186: Felix Auger-Aliassime [born in 2000]
159: Carlos Alcaraz [born in 2003]
100: Holger Rune [born in 2003]

He’s also just the second Danish man in the Open Era to reach 100 career wins, after Kenneth Carlsen, who played on the tour between 1992 and 2007 and amassed 266 career wins. Carlsen won three career ATP titles and reached a career-high of No. 41.

After getting his first four tour-level wins between 2018 (1-0), 2019 (1-1) and 2020 (2-0), all in Davis Cup play, Rune picked up seven more wins in 2021 (7-13) before really starting to pile up the wins over the last two years, in 2022 (39-24) and 2023 (44-24).

He’s now 6-2 so far in 2024, reaching the ninth ATP final of his career in Brisbane (finishing runner-up to Grigor Dimitrov) and the second round of the Australian Open (falling to Arthur Cazaux), and now the quarterfinals in Montpellier.

Despite being a No. 156-ranked qualifier, Llamas Ruiz had already shown he belonged at this stage this week, taking out former No. 7 Richard Gasquet in the first round—and he gave current No. 7 Rune all he could handle in the first set on Thursday, pushing him to a 56-minute first set, even fighting off seven set points before Rune finally converted on his eighth to break and close it out.

From there Rune only grew in confidence, breaking the Spaniard again in his opening service game in the second set and eventually cruising to the straight-set victory.

Awaiting Rune in the quarterfinals will be unseeded American Michael Mmoh, who beat the No. 7 seed, Alexandre Muller, in the second round. Rune and Mmoh have never played each other.