Ruud and Rune, the new faces of the next-gen
Obviously, world tennis awaits the successors of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. While waiting for these three legends to retire, several players are patiently waiting for their time at the gate. This has been the case for several years with well-identified players, such as Daniil Medvedev (2nd player in the world), Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime or Carlos Alcaraz.
Casper Ruud and Holger Rune interjected among all these names. The first has, in this fortnight, started by sending Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to retirement in the first round (6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 7-6) before getting rid of Emil Ruusuvuori (6- 3, 6-4, 6-2), Lorenzo Sonego (6-2, 6-7, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Hubert Hurkacz (6-2, 6-3, 3- 6, 6-3) in subsequent rounds.
For his part, Rune remains on a feat achieved against Stefanos Tsitsipas, world number 4 and finalist last year, with a success of the young 19-year-old Danish in the round of 16 against the Greek (7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4). Before that, Rune had dismissed Denis Shapovalov (6-3, 6-1, 7-6), Henri Laaksonen (6-2, 6-3, 6-3) and extinguished the will-o’-the-wisp Hugo Gaston (6- 3, 6-3, 6-3).