Stockholm, Day 3: Rune the fighter strikes again in the second round to set up a quarter-final against Fritz
Holger Rune showed the fighting spirit that made his name to reach the quarter-finals of the Bybit Stockholm Open. The 2022 champion trailed 4-1 and lost the first set before he came back to beat Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round on Wednesday, in 1 hour 25 minutes, and now faces top seed Taylor Fritz.
Stockholm is one of the two big end-of-season tennis events in Sweden, along with UTS Gothenburg by BNP Paribas, which takes place at the Scandinavium on December 12 and 13. Rune is part of both.
From 1-4 down to the quarter-finals
Rune’s start was poor. He dropped his opening service game to love and Kecmanovic broke again to lead 4-1 before taking the first set 6-2 in 24 minutes. The Dane did not panic. He kept going for his shots, piled up the winners and won 12 of the last 17 games. He broke to lead 3-1 in the second set and dropped only one game in it. In the decider, he broke first, was pegged back at 2-2, and settled it with a late break.
It was Rune’s 40th tour-level quarter-final, making him the fifth man born in the 2000s to reach that mark, after Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti. It is also his second quarter-final in three tournaments, after Basel last month, where he had also come from a set down to beat Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7).
The win also settled a score in Stockholm: Kecmanovic had beaten Rune at the same stage of this tournament in 2023, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Rune has now won the last four meetings between them.
Fritz next
Fritz, chasing a year-end place in the top 10, beat Cameron Norrie 7-5, 6-3. The American, twice a runner-up at UTS events, trailed 5-3 in the first set and saved two set points before turning it around. He leads Rune 2-1 in their head-to-head, and won their last meeting 6-1, 6-2 in Shanghai in 2024. Rune’s only win against him came at Indian Wells that same year, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Ruud out in the second round, Musetti vs Humbert
Defending champion Casper Ruud, the second seed in Stockholm and Bastide UTS Nîmes 2025 champion, lost to qualifier Aleksandr Shevchenko 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours 20 minutes. Shevchenko hit 50 winners against 20 unforced errors.
Seventh seed Ugo Humbert, runner-up at UTS Frankfurt 2024, beat Borna Gojo 6-2, 6-4 and will play third seed Lorenzo Musetti for the first time on the ATP Tour in the quarter-finals. At the UTS level, Humbert had defeated Musetti in Frankfurt. Fourth seed Alejandro Tabilo needed 2 hours 55 minutes to beat Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (2), 6-7 (7), 7-5 and faces Alex Michelsen.
Next stop: UTS Gothenburg
Rune opens his UTS Gothenburg weekend against Alexander Bublik in the quarter-finals. The other quarter-finals are Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Leo Borg, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Luciano Darderi and Brandon Nakashima vs Andrey Rublev.
