Holger Rune’s journey at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters came to a close on Friday after losing to Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals in a thrilling three-set match filled with on-court drama. The first set (6-4) favored the Italian with an early break of serve, but the second set saw a tight competition, with both players maintaining serve until 5-5.
During Rune’s next service game, a time violation led the Monte-Carlo crowd to jeer against him. The young player gestured for them to be quiet, eliciting a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct from the chair umpire. Rune did not agree with the call and asked the supervisor to intervene and overturn the warning. However, the supervisor did not reverse the decision, and the crowd continued to boo Rune even as he held his service game after saving three break points.
In the tiebreaker, the umpire triggered further controversy by overturning a call after checking the ball mark on one of Sinner’s shots, angering Rune, who felt that too many decisions were against him. The Hawk-eye system confirmed the ball was out, as Rune insisted, but it is worth noting that electronic line-calling technology is not yet considered fully accurate for clay.
Regardless, Rune won the tiebreaker, leading the match into the final set, where Sinner triumphed 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 to reach the semifinals. Rune, having previously been the Monte-Carlo runner-up, will drop out of the top-10 ATP rankings due to his quarterfinal departure this week. This marks the first time in nearly 16 months that Rune will fall out of the top-10. At his peak, he held the ranking of World No. 4 in August, making him the highest-ranked man from Denmark in ATP history. Meanwhile, Sinner will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals.
