The fire could have caught on in the fiery atmosphere of the GrandStand, with the white-hot tifosis to welcome Holger Rune’s boos. But Fabio Fognini, led 5-1 before being two points from returning to 5-5 (0-30 on the Dane’s service), failed to validate the comeback. Rune then released four winning points to close the set, just to prove that he had nerves, at least more than on a horrible smash missed after rebound which had caused him a break earlier in the set under the broncas.
Without fire or flame in the second round, guilty of too much negligence, the Italian (35 years old, 130th in the world) ended up falling apart, and we could hear the flies flying in the stadium. Winner of Murray and Kecmanovic in the previous rounds – it was the first time he had won two in a row since April 2022 – Fognini suffered his fifteenth consecutive loss against a member of the top 10. Rune, who lost only Once in nine face-to-face against Italian players, will be opposed to the Australian Popyrin, from the qualifications, in the round of 16.