"It's incredible! I was very nervous at the end and the public was great", exclaimed the young Danish who will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8th) on Wednesday to try to climb into the last four of his first ever Major on clay.

"I was nervous but I knew that I had to continue to apply my game plan if I wanted to have a chance", added the youthful player about the comeback of his opponent in the 4th set.

After an exchange of serves at the start of the first set, Rune earned the decisive break on a magnificent short-cross passing pass as Tsitsipas led the exchange, to lead 6-5 and serve for the set.

The Dane offered himself two first set points but only concluded on the third.

The Danish Holger Rune, during his victory against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, in the round of 16 of the Roland-Garros tournament, May 30, 2022 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

Rune was much more effective than Tsitsipas in this first round: he converted the two break points obtained (against one out of three for Tsitsipas) and scored 18 winning shots for 12 unforced errors against 12 and 14 for his opponent.

The ratios reversed in the second set: Tsitsipas materialized the only break point he had, to break away 5-3 and equalize at a set everywhere on a shutout concluded by an ace, when Rune missed the three obtained (when he led 40-0 to 1-1).

And the Greek managed 8 winning strokes for 5 unforced errors against 9 and 11 for his opponent.

The Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, during his defeat against the Dane Holger Rune, in the round of 16 of the Roland-Garros tournament, May 30, 2022 JULIEN DE ROSA AFP

The third set was very balanced until Tsitsipas made a very bad service game (two double faults and an unforced error) to concede a white break (2-4).

Rune quietly held on to lead two sets to one.

First Dane in quarters

In the fourth set, he took Tsitsipas' face-off twice and served for the match at 5-2.

But the Greek scored 8 points in a row to come back at 5-4, forcing Rune to serve a second time for the match.

Again, Tsitsipas had three balls to level at 5-5, but Rune swept them away relying on excellent serve and won on his first match point.

With Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in the top half of the men's draw, Tsitsipas was the big favorite in the bottom half.

The Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas greets the supporters, after his defeat against the Dane Holger Rune, in the round of 16 of the Roland-Garros tournament, May 30, 2022 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

He had had a big season on clay so far: he won the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, as in 2021, reached the semi-finals in Madrid and the final in Rome.

For his part, Rune is the first Dane in history to reach the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros since the tournament was created in 1925. He is also the first Dane to reach this stage of a Major since Jan Leschly who had reached the semis at the 1967 US Open.

© 2022 AFP