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Rune saves match points as Wimbledon rival's serve gamble fails / Photo: © AFP
Rune saves match points as Wimbledon rival's serve gamble fails
Holger Rune saved two match points to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and reach the Wimbledon last 16 on Saturday, with the Spaniard left to regret deciding to serve underarm when he was just two points from winning.
The Danish sixth seed came through 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) after Davidovich Fokina served underarm at 8/8 in the final-set tiebreaker.
Holger was quick to it, winning the point to go to match point, which he converted when the 31st seed netted a forehand.
"I didn't expect the serve like that but I was fast to reach it," said Rune after the four-hour clash, in which he fired 19 aces in his 61 winners.
Rune had saved match points in the 10th game of the final set and then recovered from 6/2 and 8/5 down in the breaker.
The 20-year-old will face either Frances Tiafoe or Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the quarter-finals.
For Davidovich Fokina, it was a second successive nightmare exit from the All England Club.
Twelve months ago, he was penalised for ball abuse at 7/9 down in the fifth-set breaker against Jiri Vesely and lost the match.
He received a point penalty, which gave Vesely victory.
L. Pchartschoy--BTZ
