Rune recovers from his scare before facing Zverev at Roland-Garros

After his scare in the 2nd round, when he came close to elimination against Flavio Cobolli (6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6 in just under 4 hours), Holger Rune enjoyed a much calmer 3rd round on Saturday. He spent just 2 hours and 18 minutes on Court 7 to defeat Jozef Kovalik, the Lucky Loser who defeated Karen Khachanov in the previous round (7-5, 6-1, 7-6).

However, the 21-year-old Dane had to seriously tighten up his game at the end of the 1st and 3rd sets to avoid being dragged into a longer match. A good idea, given the constant threat of rain, which could have postponed the end of the match.

In the Round of 16, however, Rune will have to seriously raise his game as things get very, very serious for him. On Monday, he will face Alexander Zverev, who has won nine consecutive clay-court matches since taking the Masters 1000 title in Rome, and who is clearly one of the favourites for the title in Paris.