Miami Masters 1000: Hungarian Marozsan gave a performance and crushed Holger Rune

Performance and crash of Fabian Marozsan in the second round of Miami Masters 1000. He overtook the Hungarian, 57th in the standings Rune Holgersixth favourite, who he beat with a resounding 6-1 and 6-1 in just 59 minutes of play, and increased his positive record against players in the top 10. The one achieved against the Dane on the center court of Hard Rock Stadium It was the third victory in four matches played against rivals from that group, all in the last ten months. Ten months in which he completely changed his career.

“It’s a great feeling to play at the highest level. I always try to play my best tennis, but especially when I face a top 10 player and I enjoy it here,” commented Marozsan, who will now face the Australian. Alexei Popyrin45th in the standings and will look to extend his great moment in the American competition.

The 24-year-old Hungarian has been growing by leaps and bounds since last May, making his first big impact on his debut in a Masters 1000. He was inside Romecompetition in which he participated in 135th place in the ranking, without ever having played in the main draw of a tournament on the circuit. ATP and without ever having beaten a player in the top hundred. But it was discovered at the Foro Italico. He topped the ranking, lost Corentin Moutet (67th) and Jiri Lehecka (39th) in the first rounds of the main draw and in his third match he surprised the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, number two in the world. He fell in the round of 16 against Borna Coric (16th), but that unexpected celebration against Murcian marked a turning point for him.

“It all started last year in Rome. Everyone talks about that victory against Alcaraz. Even though I went onto the pitch hoping to win a couple of matches against him”, he recalled a few weeks ago in an interview with ‘ATP.

After his stay in the Italian capital, Marozsan has not stopped growing. At the end of June it entered the top 100 for the first time and in January it reached 57th place, its best position. He has played the last three Slams: Wimbledon and US Open 2023 (the British entered from the qualifiers and lost on his debut and the American entered directly into the main draw and won a match) and Australia 2024. And he also played two other Masters 1000 : Shanghai AND Indian wells.

In October, in the Chinese competition, he again defeated one of the top 10. In the round of 16 he defeated the Norwegian 7-6 (7-3), 3-6 and 6-4 Casper Ruud, therefore ninth in the rankings. And earlier this month, in the Californian desert, he suffered the “revenge” of Alcaraz, who beat him with a double 6-3.

And this Sunday in Miami, in his fourth participation in a competition of this category, he once again defeated an opponent who belongs to that elite, to improve his record and demonstrate that those who nickname him “The giant killer“They’re not entirely wrong.

Rune, a 20-year-old former world number four, later released a statement explaining his poor performance in what was the quickest defeat of his top-10 career.

“I was sick the night before the match and thought about withdrawing from the tournament, but since I felt better after the warm-up, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I had no energy,” he explained in a message broadcast by some media in his country.

Beyond this mitigating circumstance, the Dane, considered one of the most talented young people on the circuit, remains unexplored at the level of colleagues of his generation such as Alcaraz himself or the Italian Jannik Sinner. In recent months – in which he has undergone several coaching changes, until teaming up with Patrick Mouratoglou for the second time – he has played very irregular tennis. And now he suffered a severe setback against an inspired Marozsan, who broke him five times and scored 23 winners and only four unforced errors.

Right-handed and with a two-handed backhand like most of his generation, the Hungarian executioner from Rune started playing tennis at the age of five. His father was his first teacher and taught him all the secrets of this sport from a very young age. He considers himself a man of slow courts. Your idol is Rafael Nadal and his favorite shot is the drip.

It was difficult for him to fit into the circuit. Between 2017 and 2021 he played all Futures and tournaments ITF that could He did more good than harm: his record was 101 wins and 63 losses with five titles. Only in 2022 did he enter the circuit of Challengersthe gateway to the great circus, in which he won three titles, Banja Luka 2022 and Antalya and Perugia last year.

At 23, his unfinished business was the ATP tournaments, in which he made his debut in May 2022. It seemed that the smiles would never reach those levels, but after the revelation in Rome he took off the mufa. And this Sunday, on the hard court in Miami, he delivered another great blow against a top player.