Holger Rune solves Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Toronto opener

Holger Rune made a winning start to the US Open swing at the National Bank Open on Tuesday, defeating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, 7-6 (7), 6-3.

"Very tricky first match for me, because he's a big server and not a lot of rhythm in the match," Rune said in his post-match press conference. "I had to really take care of my own serve, and then just look for the opportunities that I had."

Seeded fifth in Toronto, Rune avenged a 2024 defeat to the big-serving Frenchman to advance in one hour and 15 minutes on Center Court.

Rune had been off the court since a first-round exit at Wimbledon last month, but kicked off the summer hard-court swing with the headline-grabbing news that he had begun a collaboration with Andre Agassi at the Mubadala Citi DC Open.

"He’s obviously an icon, so everybody knows him, his style and everything,” Rune said of their pre-DC Open training bloc. “So, I thought when I reached out him, he would be a good guy to get some mentoring from."

"Tt was nice to get some different eyes sometimes on my game," he added on Tuesday. "I thought Andre, some of the things that he had in his game, like big return, I like to return big. I saw a few similarities. I reached out to him and he was extremely open, so that was another nice thing. Yeah, he sees my game very high, so I was like really happy to hear his point of view. Obviously he's such a legend of the game, so you really listen to everything he says."

The Dane was ultimately unable to compete in Washington, D.C. due to a sudden back injury, but was on court in fine form against Mpetshi Perricard after a first-round bye. Mpetshi Perricard eased past Shintaro Mochizuki to win in his Canada main-draw debut, and had a head-to-head advantage over Rune after beating him in the Swiss Indoors Basel semifinals last fall.

Mpetshi Perricard pushed eventual semifinalist Taylor Fritz to five sets in the first round of Wimbledon and presented Rune with a similar challenge to open Center Court action on Tuesday. Playing a tiebreaker after 12 straight holds of serve, Mpetshi Perricard gained the early initiative in the Sudden Death with a 3-1 lead but Rune bounced back, saving a set point at 7-6 to ultimately edge through the set on his second opportunity.

Rune scored the lone break of the match in the fourth game of the second set, capitalizing on a 0-40 lead to race ahead 5-2. Mpetshi Perricard forced Rune to serve it out but the 22-year-old had no problems with the match on his racquet, volleying his way to victory in just over an hour. Rune won a clean match with 23 winners to just 10 unforced errors over two sets.

Rune could face another Frenchman in the third round as he awaits the winner of No. 29 seed Alexandre Müller (first meeting) or Miomir Kecmanovic (Rune leads 3-1).