In the middle of the afternoon, when the sun enters the Suzanne Lenglen track from the side and, like a well-sharpened knife, traces a diagonal across the clay, Sara Sorribes (26), with a long face, appears on the belly of Philippe Chatrier.
Above, Holger Rune (20) and Francisco Cerúndolo (24) fight and, below, Sorribes struggles with his thoughts.
Sorribes, ranked 132nd in the world, the last surviving Spanish woman in the women’s team, had never reached this far in a Grand Slam.
When she talks to the media – with a surprised face, dozens of media don’t usually expect her – she has come from playing in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, something she had never experienced, but she has just compromised against Beatriz Haddad Maia by 6 -7 (3), 6-3 and 7-5, after 3h51m, the third longest women’s match in the history of the tournament, and so it says:
-Right now I don’t think I have anything to complain about. But at night, when I go to bed, I think I will remember this game. And in the future, more…
(…)
At Suzanne Lenglen, between suns and shadows, Rune and Cerúndolo, two of the tennis innovations of recent times, furrow their brows and sharpen their sight, since they cannot see well where the ball is coming from, that is what the game of lights and shadows in Lenglen, and the game has become convoluted, and it is decided capriciously on both sides.
This time, Aneke Rune does not move from her son’s box, not like last year, in the quarter-finals, when Rune, who was facing Casper Ruud, in a fit of anger had ordered her mother
–Get off the track!
(And the mother had obeyed her, everyone would do anything for a child).
Rune was then an angry tennis player, a creature with a creature’s comb, his cap backwards like the naughty ones at school and his round, beardless face, and that match had ended badly: the Dane had lost the match and eventually the battle as well for popular credit, as criticism would rain down on him, including the voices of the pops.
– Rune is talented, but he is too emotional – Mats Wilander would say.
-He must better channel his character and his intensity, he cannot let emotions dominate him, but use them to improve performance – John McEnroe would say.
– He’s rude and doesn’t know how to behave on a track – Ruud would say.
Both Rune and Ruud have reconciled.
And we could see it at the Masters 1000 in Rome, three weeks ago: after the semi-final match, Rune had a lot of kind words for Ruud.
– I respect him a lot – he said.
However, Rune is already late.
It already loads with the label.
Bad boy.
– I play with passion and energy – he protests. I don’t understand why they have to put this label on me. A bad boy is someone who breaks rackets and does similar things. And as far as I can remember, I haven’t broken a racket yet.
And he is a little right, at least if we relive yesterday’s match, his capricious confrontation against Cerúndolo.
Really, Cerúndolo, Argentine player, the most talented Argentine in recent years (especially after the retirement of Juan MartÃn del Potro), is the one who vociferates and badmouths her.
And, after a mistake, he calls out to Kevin Konfederak, his coach:
-Don’t tell me it’s okay, don’t tell me it’s okay! Because it’s not good!
And while Cerúndolo comes and goes, Rune immerses himself in inner dialogue, keeps his cockroaches to himself and does not curse or evade, not even in the decisive tie-break, when he sees that he is only three points short of defeat after send another ball into the net.
– I couldn’t have had a better time. And I don’t know how to thank the public for all their support – he reveals at the end with his boyish voice, flattering him, when he gets the round of 16 match, a marathon of 3h59m, to meet Ruud, once again in quarters, as in 2022.
Calmly plays better, or so he seems to have learned.
(Kyrgios, Djokovic and Zverev move in other parameters).
