Holger Rune survived a fifth-set tie-break in opposition to Francisco Cerundolo to arrange a French Open quarter-final rematch with Casper Ruud.
Their encounter on the identical stage final 12 months descended into acrimony when Rune accused Ruud of celebrating in his face within the locker room and displaying a scarcity of sophistication, which was fiercely denied by the Norwegian.
For some time it regarded like they may not meet once more, with Argentinian Cerundolo battling again from two units to 1 all the way down to pressure a decider after which holding three break factors at 4-3.
Dane Rune saved all of them, broke serve himself then did not serve it out however put the frustration behind him to clinch a 7-6 (3) 3-6 6-4 1-6 7-6 (7) victory after simply in need of 4 hours.
Rune felt it was simply deserts after his loss on the identical stage of the Australian Open to Andrey Rublev, saying: “I had a heart-breaking loss in Australia where I could serve for it and I lost it in a match tie-break like this.
“I told myself when we started the tie-break just to relax and enjoy it. Moments like this stay with you whether you win or you lose. I enjoyed every moment.”
There was one other second of umpiring controversy within the third set when, like within the conflict between Cameron Norrie and Lucas Pouille on the identical courtroom, the umpire failed to identify a double bounce.
This time Cerundolo was the sufferer and, to compound issues, umpire Kader Nouni awarded Rune the purpose after his opponent gestured that it ought to have been stopped.
Ruud edged three tight units in opposition to Chilean Nicolas Jarry, coming by means of 7-6 (3) 7-5 7-5 to maintain alive his hopes of creating back-to-back finals.
The Norwegian is slowly coming again into type after a disappointing begin to the 12 months, and he stated: “This year I felt a little more pressure, obviously, because I needed to try to defend my final spot.
“That’s been on my mind. And I haven’t done as well in other tournaments, so I know every match that I can win and points on the rankings that I can try to gain can be important for the rest of the year.
“So I don’t feel like I have played my best tennis yet but, at the same time, I’m playing many opponents who play very aggressively and they play fast and give me no rhythm.
“I think my next match is going to be a little more playable from the baseline and I think the game will be a little bit different from this match. I’m going to try to prepare for that and hopefully bring my A game.”