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Holger Rune made history en route to winning the biggest title of his young career as he came from behind to down Novak Djokovic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 32 minutes to be crowned the Paris Masters champion on Sunday. The 19-year-old’s victory over the six-time title winner in Paris marked his fifth successive win over a top 10 player this week, making him the first man to get five top 10 wins in a row during the same single-week tournament.
Rune stepped out onto the centre court in Paris-Bercy for the biggest match of his career as he prepared for the first Masters 1000 final of his career against 35-year-old Djokovic - the man who holds the record for most Masters titles won in ATP history. It was the defending champion who started off a little shaky as he blew a 40-0 lead to find himself at deuce before managing to hold.
But order was quickly restored as the six-time winner of the Paris Masters broke the teenager in the fourth game of the match to take a 3-1 lead, with Rune looking noticeably more hesitant than he did in his previous rounds in which he reeled off four straight wins over top 10 players. Djokovic continued to hold before closing out the opener 6-3 in a set and as though he was cementing his stronghold on the match as he quickly went 0-40 up on the Rune serve.
But the Dane fired back to save all three break points, getting the crowd on-side before winning the nine-minute game after correctly challenging one of his shots that was called out. Suddenly it was all Rune as an uncharacteristic mistake from the Serb saw him gift the teenager a break point in the very next game as the crowd started to make themselves heard, chanting the first-time finalist’s name, and he hit the ball wide to allow Rune to break for a 2-0 lead.
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