Sawt Falasteen - 'Double bounce? That's life', says Rune after French Open flashpoint

The 20-year-old Dane came through 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7) after four hours and will face 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud in a repeat of last year's bad-tempered quarter-final.

However, Rune was booed by the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd for hitting the ball on a double bounce in the fourth game of the third set.

His 23rd seeded Argentine opponent stopped playing, expecting the umpire to call the point for him.

Play continued and Cerundolo, who was called for hindrance when he halted, dropped serve.

"When I was hitting the ball, I just ran for it. But then obviously when I saw it, after he did call it, I saw it after the next point on the TV, and I saw it was a double bounce," said Rune.

"But the point already happened and he called the score.

"So I felt sorry. Sorry for him. But this is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That's life."

Rune hoped his quarter-final with Ruud on Wednesday will be remembered for the right reasons.

Last year's match at Roland Garros, which Ruud won in four sets, sparked a war of words between the two.

Rune accused the Norwegian of a "lack of respect"; Ruud told the Dane to "grow up".

Ruud holds a 4-1 career head-to-head lead over Rune but the 20-year-old won their last meeting on clay in the Rome semi-finals last month.

"Obviously there was drama last year and I hope we can make less drama this year," said Rune.

"We played each other in Rome. It was a good match. He's a good player. I respect him. There's no problem. We're good.

"Should be a match without problems, hopefully."

Monday's win was a morale boost for Rune who lost a fifth-set super-tiebreak against Andrey Rublev in the last 16 at the Australian Open in January.

He also had two match points in that clash.

"Actually I was thinking of the match against Rublev when we started the match tiebreak," said Rune.

"I told myself to act and to think differently, just to do something different than I did in Australia, because that didn't work. I did that, and it was the right thing to do."

Cerundolo, playing in the second week of a Slam for the first time, had the crowd on its feet when he hit back to level the match.

In a dramatic decider, Rune survived being 3-4, 0-40 to hold and break.

He served for the match at 5-4 but the 24-year-old from Buenos Aires hit back to level for 5-5 and held for 6-5 before the match went to a knife-edge tiebreak.

"What a sport," tweeted Cerundolo.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST