Holger Rune dodged a real bullet when it came to his opener at the Madrid Open in many ways and also garnered headlines for his issue with a bizarre part of the stadium, the advertising hoardings as he let his feelings known to the umpires during a nervy win over Mariano Navone.
Navone served for the win, but the World No.12 pulled off a real miraculous escape and needed six match points to get it done. But he did so getting through 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the end. But his issue came also at a vital moment.
With the Argentine ace serving at 4-5 in the second set, Rune started to complain about how bright the boards were advertising brands and such. Umpire Renaud Lichtenstein told the 20-year-old that he had already asked for this to be rectified so he wasn't alone in the issue. But while he was told that it would be sorted, he continued to mutter to himself. The umpire as a result tried speeding it up. “On Arantxa Sanchez can we dim the banners in the back, it’s bright.” Still rattled, he was broken in the next game.
But ironically the boards being dimmed allowed Rune to begin his great escape, Rune stormed back and despite struggling to serve it out likely would've lost had the boards not been altered. Utterly bizarre, but it worked in his favour.
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