ROME — Holger Rune‘s run at the Italian Open has already been extraordinary. And he’s not done yet.
The 20-year-old Danish player recorded his second victory over Novak Djokovic in little more than six months in the quarterfinals. Then he rallied past Casper Ruud 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals on Saturday.
On Sunday, Rune will be looking to top it all off with a third consecutive victory over a top-five player at the Foro Italico when he faces Daniil Medvedev for the trophy.
Rune improved to 7-1 in his career against players ranked in the top five.
“I play some of my best tennis when I play the top guys of the world,” Rune said. “You need it against those players.”
Medvedev beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 7-5 in a match that was suspended for a total of nearly 4½ hours because of rain over two separate stoppages late in the first set.
Up next on Campo Centrale: Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina was scheduled to play Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine in the women’s final, which was supposed to have started hours earlier.
Making the final marked quite a turnaround for Medvedev, who lost his opening match in Rome in his three previous appearances. If he beats Rune, Medvedev will return to No. 2 in the rankings and thus be seeded second for the French Open, which starts next weekend.
It will be just the second clay-court final for Medvedev, and his first since 2019.
He celebrated with a little dance after converting his first match point more than six hours after the match started.
“It’s like being in the club completely drunk. When you are dancing — and I have a lot of friends like this — you feel like you are the god of the dance floor. But then when they show you the video, it was not the thing,” Medvedev said. “So I don’t know how did it go, but I was just happy to be in my first clay Masters final.”
Medvedev embraced the challenge of the delays: “Sometimes it can throw you off, you can be a little bit angry. Today, I don’t know why, I was just kind of laughing.”
The seventh-ranked Rune was down a set and a break before he overcame Ruud, who had won all four of their previous meetings.
“It’s crazy. I really played some of my best tennis, especially the last two matches, first against Novak and then against Casper,” Rune said. “Two so difficult players to play, so I had to find my best tennis. And I actually didn’t find it today, only at the end.”
It will be Rune’s third clay-court final this season after losing to Andrey Rublev in Monte…
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