Rune survives thriller with Cobolli to advance to third round

Holger Rune produced a Houdini-like escape as he scraped past Flavio Cobolli of Italy in five gruelling sets to reach the third round of the French Open.

The Dane, a quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros in each of the past two years, was 5-0 down in the deciding tiebreak before storming back to win it 10-7 and claim a 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7) to advance to round three.

Epic comeback in deciding tiebreak

Rune, seeded 13, had been cruising to victory when he led two sets to love but Cobolli, one of a host of rising Italian stars, began to play the kind of tennis that has taken him to a career-high ranking of 53.

The fifth set was spectacular as both men threw everything at each other and when Cobolli won the first five points of the first-to-10-point tiebreak, his hopes looked over.

But Rune dug deep, kept on attacking and won eight of the next 10 points to gain an advantage and he then won the next two points as well to finish off a hard-earned victory,

The Dane, who beat Dan Evans in round one, will face the winner of the match between Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 18 seed, and Slovak lucky loser Jozef Kovalik next.

Cobolli beat Serbian qualifier Hamad Medjedovic (6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3) in round one.

Paris (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53.478.000, most recent results first):

• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Arthur Rinderknech: thursday
• Lorenzo Musetti (30) beat Gael Monfils: 7-5, 6-1, 6-4
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Dusan Lajovic: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Casper Ruud: thursday
• Francisco Cerundolo (23) beat Filip Misolic (Q): 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-0
• Jan-Lennard Struff beat Alexander Bublik (19): 6-2, 6-2, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov vs. Jozef Kovalik: thursday
• Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Giulio Zeppieri: thursday
• Tomas Machac beat Mariano Navone (31): 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 1-6, 6-1
• Alex De Minaur (11) beat Jaume Munar: 7-5, 6-1, 6-4
• Tommy Paul (14) beat Fabio Fognini: 6-1, 6-0, 6-2
• Ben Shelton (15) beat Kei Nishikori: 7-6 (7), 6-4 ret.
• Corentin Moutet beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-4, 6-2, 0-6, 6-3
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-4, 6-1, 6-2
• Alexander Zverev (4) beat David Goffin: 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Lorenzo Sonego: 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor (26) beat Luciano Darderi: 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-3
• Sebastian Ofner beat Sebastian Baez (20): 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (5)
• Grigor Dimitrov (10) beat Fabian Marozsan: 6-0, 6-3, 6-4
• Zizou Bergs (Q) beat Maximilian Marterer: 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
• Denis Shapovalov beat Frances Tiafoe (25): 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
• Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Sebastian Korda (27) beat SoonWoo Kwon: 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (21) beat Henri Squire (Q): 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
• Matteo Arnaldi beat Alexandre Muller (WC): 6-4, 6-1, 6-3
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Miomir Kecmanovic: 6-1, 5-0 ret.
• Jannik Sinner (2) beat Richard Gasquet (WC): 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
• Pavel Kotov beat Stan Wawrinka: 7-6 (5), 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5)
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat Pedro Martinez: 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
• Carlos Alcaraz (3) beat Jesper De Jong (Q): 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (9) beat Daniel Altmaier: 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4