Madrid [Spain], May 1 : Alejandro Davidovich Fokina rode on the support of his home crowd to beat the sixth seed Holger Rune to reach the Round of 16 at the ongoing Madrid Open on Sunday.
The Spard outlasted Rune with victory in a 7-6(1), 5-7, 7-6(5) in the match that lasted for three hours, five minutes in Manolo Santana Stadium.
Both players had treatment during the tense match - Rune for his right wrist early on, and Davidovich Fokina late and struggled physically at points, but it was the Spard who summoned the energy in the deciding tie-break to advance to the last 16. Davidovich Fokina will meet Borna Coric in the last 16 after his 7-6(3), 6-3 win against 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz earlier on Sunday.
After saving a match point in his Madrid debut against Alexander Bublik on Friday, Rune threatened another escape one day after his 20th birthday. Despite forcing the tie-break from 3-5 in the final set, he ended his five-match winning streak, which began last week with his successful Munich title defence. Rune also saved four match points to defeat Botic van de Zandschulp in the Munich final last Sunday.
The tie-break concluded the topsy-turvy Madrid encounter in dramatic fashion. After leading 3/1, Davidovich Fokina fell behind 3/4 only to fight back one more time to win, gaining just enough grip on his groundstrokes to hit past Rune in the vital moments.
"Mentally and physically it was very hard. Rune is a very good player. It was always tough games and we had to stay focussed on every service, because you never know when you [can] have the break point," Davidovich Fokina was quoted as saying by ATP.com.
"I had my chances in the third set too, but I had a lot of tension and I was a little bit anxious to finish the point," added the 23-year-old, who let slip a 5-3 lead in the decider before regrouping. "But I did well and I'm very happy," he added.
He will hope some of the fans who stayed to support him deep into the night will be back for his next match.
"I felt that energy and I was like, 'OK, I don't want to go home. I want to win this game. It doesn't matter if I am cramping, doesn't matter if I have a lot of tension, but I want to win this match," he said of the crowd's influence.
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