It was known that Roberto Bautista was going to have a tough time. After beating two veterans Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, in the semi-finals he had to radically change his approach because his opponent was totally different: the 19 year old Holger Rune, number 25 in the ATP ranking and who came in hot having won 12 of his last 13 matches in the last month, including a title in Stockholm last week.
It was a classic duel of styles: the control and sobriety of the Spaniard against the vigour and electricity of the Dane. Despite the difference in the ways of understanding tennis, equality was the dominant tone.
Patrick Mouratoglou's pupil had not lost a serve in the whole tournament and against Bautista it would be no different. In the first set, he did not concede a single break point and did not take advantage of the two break points he had in his favour, which led to a tie break. There, the Dane surprised by adding calm to his powerful shot and gave no option to the Spaniard, winning 7-1.
The Spaniard raised his level and tried everything he could in the second set. Despite the bombs he received in the return, he had seven break opportunities that he could not execute, but as he was very solid in his service games (not in vain he won 28 of the 33 points when he served), again the tiebreak game would be decisive. When it seemed that the match was going to be decided in the third set with 6-2 in favour of Bautista, Rune gave the final push to win six consecutive points and qualify for the final, where he will face the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Carlos Alcaraz's executioner, in what will be the duel between the most in-form players of the last few weeks.
