Rune, Haddad Maia win French Open epics as Swiatek enjoys brief encounter

PARIS — Holger Rune and Beatriz Haddad Maia triumphed in marathon French Open epics which took almost eight hours to complete on Monday while Iga Swiatek required just 31 minutes to move into the quarterfinals.

World No. 6 Rune reached a second successive quarterfinal in Paris with his first ever five-set win.

The 20-year-old Dane claimed a four-hour 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7) victory against Francisco Cerundolo and will face 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud in a repeat of last year’s bad-tempered quarterfinal.

Rune was jeered by the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd for hitting the ball on a double bounce in the fourth game of the third set.

His 23rd seeded Argentine opponent stopped playing, expecting the umpire to call the point for him.

Play continued and Cerundolo, who was called for hindrance when he halted, dropped serve.

“This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life,” said Rune.

Cerundolo, playing in the second week of a Slam for the first time, had the crowd on its feet when he hit back to level the match.

In a dramatic decider, Rune survived being 3-4, 0-40 to hold and then break.

He served for the match at 5-4 but the 24-year-old from Buenos Aires hit back to level for 5-5 and held for 6-5 before the match went to a knife-edge super-tiebreak.

Rune finished the match with 48 winners and 73 unforced errors.

“What a sport,” tweeted Cerundolo.

Haddad Maia won the third longest ever women’s match at Roland Garros to become the first Brazilian woman in the last eight of a Slam since 1968.

Haddad Maia battled from a set and 3-0 down to defeat Sara Sorribes Tormo in three hours and 51 minutes.

The 27-year-old left-hander came through 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 7-5 against her 132nd-ranked Spanish opponent on Court Suzanne Lenglen, the venue also for the Rune-Cerundolo clash later in the afternoon.

Haddad Maia is the first Brazilian woman in a Slam quarterfinal since seven-time major winner Maria Bueno in 1968.

She will face World No. 7 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia for a place in the semifinals.

“I am very happy and very proud that I didn’t give up and I think that is why I deserved this victory,” said Haddad Maia.

Defending champion and World No. 1 Swiatek set-up a quarterfinal with Coco Gauff after Lesia Tsurenko retired from their last-16 clash through illness after just 31 minutes.

Swiatek was leading 5-1 when the 66th-ranked Tsurenko, who had called the doctor after experiencing dizziness and shortness of breath, decided not to continue.

In her last round, Swiatek was on court for just 51 minutes in a 6-0, 6-0 blitz of China’s Wang Xinyu.

Gauff, 19, reached the quarterfinals for a third successive year with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

“Finals have kind of different rules,” said Swiatek.

“Sometimes these matches are a little bit different than the other rounds that we play during the tournament because of the pressure and everything that’s going on around.”

Jabeur powered into the quarterfinals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-1 rout of Bernarda Pera, breaking the American’s serve eight times.

Jabeur, a Wimbledon and US Open runner-up last year, has now reached at least the quarterfinals of all four Slams.

Fourth-ranked Ruud, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal a year ago, beat in-form Nicolas Jarry of Chile 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 7-5.

The Norwegian saved 14 of 17 break points and now has a tour-leading 85 clay court wins since 2020.

Two-time semifinalist Alexander Zverev made the quarterfinals for the fifth time in six years with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 over Grigor Dimitrov. 

The German will face Tomas Martin Etcheverry after the 49th-ranked Argentine booked a place in a Slam quarterfinal for the first time thanks to a 7-6 (10/8), 6-0, 6-1 win over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.