MDP Live - The Danish tennis player, Holger Rune defended as hard as she could to get her first win of the 2022 season at the Open 13 Provence, Marseille.
Despite losing the first set, the world number 90 continued to struggle and carved out a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Belgian Zizou Bergs.
“At first, the match was quite difficult,” admitted Rune. “I struggled a lot, made a lot of mistakes. While he came out and played really well at the start of the game, so, I was feeling a little bit stressed."
"I'm trying to think like a pro, I'm trying to find a way. I've played a lot of matches in my career when I lost the first set. So I just told myself to keep going, play every ball on the pitch, and we'll see what happens."
The tennis player who last season competed in the Next Gen ATP Finals, Milan, entered the first round of the Open 13 Provence against Bergs 0-4 in 2022 and looked to be on the edge after Berg won the first five games before winning the first set easily.
However, Rune found his game in the second set and his confidence began to improve, including when he took the lead with two break opportunities to take the lead in the decider.
The 18-year-old, playing in an indoor hard-court tournament after two weeks of failure on the South American clay, held back her nerves to claim victory and vented her joy by screaming when Bergs' return forehand went wide on her match point.
Rune will be looking for another win in the second round of the Open 13 Provence against fourth seed Aslan Karatsev.
Meanwhile, three-time champion at Marseille, Jo Wilfried Tsonga beat compatriot Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-4 to book a second round match against third seed Felix Auger Aliassime.
With the win, the hosts pocketed a 10-4 head to head lead against Simon who won the title at Marseille in 2007 and 2015.
In other action, host Hugo Gaston saw off compatriot Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-4 and advanced to the second round against first seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Russian tennis player Roman Safiullin finally picked up his first ATP win of the season since battling for Russia in the ATP Cup earlier in the 2022 season after eliminating seventh seed Alexei Popyrin 6-7, 6-4, 7-6.
