Citi Open: Rune reaches last 16, beating half naked Paire after a series of seven losses

Dane Holger Rune, the No 9 seed, won against Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last 16 of the Citi Open at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center in Washington, on Wednesday.

Rune hadn’t won a match since the greatest victory of his career, at Roland-Garros against Stefanos Tsitsipas more than two months ago.

He had lost his opening round at all his tournaments post the French Open. The Dane needed five match points to close the match on his serve.

At the end of the match, Paire scratched his tee-shirt, for an unclear reason, probably his disappointment. During the match, he also shouted : “It’s really shit here (in Washington), it sucks! It’s going 155 mph on this court. It’s unplayable! (…) I have enough to be here, it’s 2000 degrees.” Typical Paire.

Rune, ranked No 28, will face the winner of the match between American wildcard J.J. Wolf and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the No 6 seed, next.

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Paire, ranked No 112, had beaten German Peter Gojowczyk (7-5, 6-4) in the previous round of the Citi Open, Washington D.C., only his fourth win of the season.

Washington ATP 500, other second-round matches (Rock Creek Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 2.108.110, most recent results first):

• Nick Kyrgios beat 6-3, 6-4 (14) : 6-3, 6-4
• Reilly Opelka beat Denis Kudla: 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4
• Frances Tiafoe (10) beat Christopher Eubanks (WC): 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Maxime Cressy (13) beat Jack Sock: 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
• Grigor Dimitrov (5) beat Adrian Mannarino: 6-1, 3-6, 7-5
• J.J. Wolf (WC) beat Denis Shapovalov (6): 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3
• Taylor Fritz (3) beat Alexei Popyrin: 6-4, 6-3
• Sebastian Korda beat Sebastian Baez (12): 6-1, 6-4
• Yoshihito Nishioka beat Alex De Minaur (11): 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Hubert Hurkacz (2): 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Mikael Ymer beat Aslan Karatsev (15): 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
• Holger Rune (9) beat Benoit Paire: 6-3, 6-2
• Karen Khachanov (7) beat Dominik Koepfer (Q): 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4
• Botic van de Zandschulp (8) beat Borna Gojo (Q): 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (1) beat Jack Draper: 6-4, 6-2
• Daniel Evans (16) beat Kyle Edmund: 6-1, 6-2