Holger Rune, Casper Ruud survive late-night five-set thrillers at 2024 Roland Garros

Playing under the lights in Paris, Scandinavian duo Holger Rune and Casper Ruud wrapped up thrilling five-set encounters to reach the third round of Roland Garros late Thursday night.

Rune, a two-time quarterfinalist (twice losing in the last eight to Ruud) shook off losing a two-set lead and rallied from 0-5 down in the fifth-set tiebreaker to defeat Flavio Cobolli, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6 (10-7), while Ruud, who is a two-time finalist on the terre battue, avenged a 2021 defeat to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to advance, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Both men were playing their second-round matches late in the evening due to rain delays that have persisted throughout the first week of the 2024 season’s second major tournament, Ruud and Davidovich Fokina getting moved under the Court Suzanne-Lenglen roof while Rune and Cobolli battled on Court 14.

Rune returned to the site of his first Grand Slam breakthrough in search of momentum, having lost early at both Mutua Madrid Open and Internazionali BNL d’Italia after enduring a heartbreaking loss to Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Down from his career-high ranking of No. 4, the No. 13 seed enjoyed a bright start to his 2024 Roland Garros campaign with a straight-sets victory over Dan Evans, and appeared equally up for another straightforward victory when he won the first two sets of his match on Thursday.

But while Evans prefers a quicker court, Cobolli is a much more instinctive clay-courter; the 22-year-old Italian is coming off a semifinal finish at the Gonet Geneva Open, where he lost to eventual champion Ruud. Breaking twice to nab the third set, he rallied from a break deficit in the fourth to force a final set, opening up a 0-40 lead on Rune’s serve in ninth game of the decider.

Rune mitigated some erratic hitting off his forehand side to save all three break points and ultimately force a tiebreaker, but quickly fell behind in the Sudden Death. Down 0-5 and 2-6, Rune reeled off 10 of the final 12 points to take the match out from under Cobolli and secure victory after three hours and 50 minutes. Awaiting him in the next round is lucky loser Jozef Kovalík, who completed his own comeback from two sets down to shock No. 18 seed Karen Khachanov earlier in the evening.

Over on Lenglen, Ruud and Davidovich Fokina were hard at work replicating the ups and downs of their third-round thriller from 2021; at the time, Ruud was coming off a breakthrough run on clay, having reached back-to-back Masters 1000 semifinals in Monte Carlo and Madrid. But ultimately faded in the fifth set to the Spaniard, who went on to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Since then, Ruud has made his own mark in the City of Lights, reaching the last two finals of Roland Garros and peaked at No. 2 in the ATP rankings, but largely slumped throughout 2023, falling out of the Top 10. The 25-year-old has returned to form and then some in 2024, scoring his first-ever win over Novak Djokovic to reach the Monte Carlo final and defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas the following week to win his first ATP 500 title in Barcelona.

A former runner-up in Monte Carlo, Davidovich Fokina is no slouch on clay himself, but has struggled for his best form in 2024 and narrowly missed out on a seed in the Roland Garros men’s draw.

Still, the 24-year-old, who recently hired former ATP No. 7 Fernando Verdasco to his coaching team, channeled the electric Lenglen crowd energy to stick with Ruud over four hours and eight minutes. Roaring back from two sets to one down, Davidovich Fokina broke Ruud to force a final set, doubling the Norwegian’s winner count in that set alone (22 to 11).

Ruud regained his composure in the fifth and grabbed the first break of the final set, holding on through a marathon eighth game to earn a 5-3 lead. With the finish line in sight, this time it was Davidovich Fokina who faded, losing serve at love to send Ruud into the Round of 32.

Waiting for the No. 7 seed will be No. 28 seed Tomás Martín Etcheverry, who advanced via retirement over Arthur Rinderknech.