Holger Rune ousts Casper Ruud in Barcelona, thanks social media for making H2H a 'big deal'

Sixth seed Holger Rune produced the type of ‘explosive’ performance he was looking for Friday to oust defending Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champion Casper Ruud, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals.

Rune jumped out with the first four games before Ruud settled into the contest. But after serving out the opening set, the Dane once again surged to a double-break lead in set two for a decisive 88-minute victory.

It cemented Rune’s second win in eight career meetings with his Scandinavian counterpart, a stat he thanked for being played up going into this latest encounter.

“It’s no secret that ATP made a big deal about it on social media, our head to head. So thanks for that,” Rune told ATP Media on court afterwards.

“But I just saw it as another match. Casper, I have bunch of respect for him, He’s a great player and I’m very happy to be able to beat him today. I think I played on my terms. I was very explosive and this is the way I want to play.”

Last week in Monte Carlo, Rune was forced to retire from a match due to food poisoning for the second time this season (he trailed Nuno Borges 6-2, 3-0). Now with three wins under his belt after recovering, the 21-year-old eyes a return to the Top 10 and faces Karen Khachanov for a place in Sunday’s championship, The Russian cooled off home favorite Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 6-4, 7-5.

In exiting, Ruud will drop at least five spots to No. 15 when Monday’s rankings are released. The two-time French Open finalist began the European clay-court season at No. 7, though was eliminated in the round of 16 of Monte Carlo by Alexei Popyrin a year after finishing runner-up at the 1000-level event.