Rune continues bright start to 2024, makes Brisbane final

Holger Rune, the top seed, won against Russian Roman Safiullin 6-4, 7-6 to move into the final of the Brisbane Open at the Queensland Tennis Centre on Saturday night.

It was a measured performance by the Dane, who withstood some big hitting from Safiullin. The Russian out-struck him 24 winners to 14, but it was Rune’s consistency on serve (67 per cent of first serves) and performance under pressure (7-0 in second set tiebreak) that got him across the line.

Rune through to ninth ATP final

Rune, ranked No 8, will face the winner of the match between Australian Jordan Thompson and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the second seed, next. This will be the ninth ATP Tour-level final of Rune’s career, at just 20 years old.

The world No 8 is competing in a tournament as the No 1 seed for the fifth time, but remains humble about the label, saying after his victory:

“When you step on court you don’t really think about it. It’s a nice feeling… Obviously, it’s tough to call me the No 1 seed when Rafa [Nadal] is here.”

Rune also shared how he’s feeling about the upcoming final in Brisbane tomorrow, saying, “It’s a great challenge tomorrow to try to see where I’m at when it really matters.

“If I want to do what I want to do in Melbourne, I’m going to be under a much bigger amount of pressure if I’m going to stay on the last day on Sunday.

“Tomorrow’s a great challenge to see how I handle everything. I’m just going to try to do it as good as possible.”

Earlier in the tournament, the 20-year-old Dane defeated Australian Max Purcell (4-6, 6-4, 6-2), Russian Alexander Shevchenko (6-4, 5-7, 6-2) and Australian qualifier James Duckworth (6-2, 7-6 (6)).

Safiullin, ranked No 39, beat American Ben Shelton, the No 3 seed (6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3), Australian Alexei Popyrin (6-7 (9), 6-4, 7-6 (3)) and Italian Matteo Arnaldi (7-6 (4), 6-2) in the previous rounds of the Brisbane tournament.

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