Holger Rune collapsed completely on Sunday afternoon and is out of the ATP 1000 tournament in Rome after a marathon match in three sets against French Corentin Moutet.
In a match that lasted a grueling three hours and 46 minutes in the baking Italian sun, the Dane was in the end forced to surrender against the Frenchman losing 7-5, 5-7, 7-6.
The Danish tennis superstar, who is number ten in the world rankings, went into the match as big favorite against the Frenchman, who is ranked as world number 83.
Even so, the French had the necessary power to dominate most baseline duels in a first set in which he prevailed 7-5, before Rune gradually seemed to recover his gameplan in the second set which he won 7-5
Thus, the match had to be decided in the third set, which, like the previous two, had to be decided in a virtual nail-biter.
The match was characterized by far too many Danish mistakes, and a staggering eight double faults from Holger Rune proved decisive.
Holger Rune is usually a specialist in decisive tiebreakers but it didn't work out for the Dane this time as he lost 7-4 and is thus out of one of the big warmup tournaments for the French Open in June.