One of the matches of this year’s Wimbledon saw Holger Rune overcome Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in five sets. The match was packed with drama and intensity right from the very first game. Eventually, it went down to a match tiebreak where only two points separated the players.

A pivotal moment towards the end of the match influenced the outcome. A moment, or rather a decision, that might haunt the Spaniard for several days to come. Fokina was absolutely gutted with himself after the match but owned up to his mistake. Let’s find out more.

Fokina accepts his absurd decision against Holger Rune

The Spaniard had multiple opportunities to seal the deal when Rune faced break points on his 4-5 service game in the decider. Well, that was relatively mild compared to what happened next. The match went down to the wire. It was 8-8 in the match tiebreak and Fokina had a brain fade.

He attempted an underarm serve against one of the fastest players on the tour. Rune was quick to notice and get to the ball. Fokina tried to come to the net, but the Dane smacked past a return winner to be one point closer to the win.

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Rune finally closed out the match. To make things worse for Fokina, he was leading 8-5 at one stage before he conceded five points on the bounce. Inevitably, the Spaniard was asked to explain his bizarre underarm serve decision. Fokina owned up to it and said, “I have to accept what happened. I shit myself and I did not want to play that point“.

Fokina accepts that nerves kicked in at the crucial moment. He wanted to catch Rune off guard and win a point off an underarm serve. However, that was an incredibly risky decision, especially on a grass court when the returner is standing very close to the baseline. On the other hand, Holger Rune continued his love affair with match tiebreaks.

Rune loves tiebreaks, stats back it

Final set tiebreaks weren’t really a norm in grand slams out of the US Open up until a few years ago. It seems like Holger Rune has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new match tiebreak rule. The world number 6 now has played three match tiebreaks this year, and he has a 2-1 winning record.

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The Dane suffered a heartbreaking exit at the Australian Open in the match tiebreak but registered two iconic wins in the same at the Roland Garros and now at Wimbledon.

Do you think Rune can reach the latter stages of the tournament and challenge the likes of Djokovic and Alcaraz?

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