Roberto Bautista Agut Defeats Holger Rune to Advance to Queen’s Club Semifinals

Roberto Bautista Agut has pulled off an major upset…

The 37-year-old Spanish professional tennis player claimed a two-sets-to-one victory (7-6 [5], 6-7 [4], 6-2) over Denmark’s Holger Rune, the No. 4 seed, on Friday evening to reach the semifinals of the Queen’s Club tournament in London.

Roberto Bautista AgutIt marks his first appearance in an ATP semifinal since October 2024, when he won the title in Antwerp, and his first on grass since the Halle tournament in 2023.

Grass has historically been a successful surface for Bautista Agut: he won his first career title on it in 2014 at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and achieved his best Grand Slam result on it — a semifinal at Wimbledon in 2019.

This Friday against Rune, he once again showed why he’s such an effective player on grass. Bautista Agut took advantage of his opponent’s numerous unforced errors — 63 in total — to clinch the win. After controlling the first set well, he had the chance to close it out in straight sets, but a double fault at 4-5 in the second-set tiebreak forced him into a deciding third set.

After breaking Rune at the very start of the final set, he maintained his lead all the way through, even managing a second break to seal the match early in the evening on the British grass.

“I think I had control of the match today, especially from the baseline. I managed to stay calm on court, and I’m really happy about that. I felt good out there, and I’ll need to play the same kind of match against Carlos tomorrow,” said Bautista Agut after his victory.

Bautista Agut, currently ranked No. 51 in the ATP rankings, will face fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed, in the semifinals at the West Kensington tournament.

It will be their third meeting on the ATP Tour, with Alcaraz leading 2–0 and yet to drop a set against his compatriot.

In the previous rounds of the Queen’s tournament, Bautista Agut edged out Portuguese Nuno Borges (6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4) and No 8 seed Jakub Mensik (3-6, 6-3, 7-5).

Alcaraz beat Arthur Rinderknech (LL): 7-5, 6-4

Francisco Cerundolo Upsets Madrid Open No. 1 Seed Alexander Zverev to Reach Quarterfinals

Francisco Cerundolo is celebrating an upset victory…

The 26-year-old Argentine professional tennis player defeated World No. 2 Alexander Zverev at the Madrid Open on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Francisco Cerundolo,Cerundolo added a second season win over the German (Buenos Aires), improving to 3-0 in the pair’s head-to-head series with a 7-5, 6-3 victory inside Manolo Santana Stadium.

Cerundolo upped his 2025 record to 23-9, adding to his 1000-level quarterfinal showings at Indian Wells and Miami.

By knocking out Zverev, Cerundolo has already matched his Top 10-win total from 2024 with four. Of significance, his first Top 10 scalp last year came against Zverev in this very round of Madrid.

“I was saying it in Spanish before, I’m seeing that the draw is wide open, I think, not this one, but every one,” Cerundolo shared in his press conference.

“The draws are super tough also, every match is a war, and you have to play good tennis to beat anyone.”

Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik awaits Cerundolo in the last eight. The Czech earlier became the fifth male teenager to make the last eight in Madrid when he eased past Alexander Bublik, 6-3, 6-2.

Alejandro Tabilo Upsets Novak Djokovic in Second Round of Monte Carlo Masters

Alejandro Tabilo has pulled off a major upset…

The 27-year-old Chilean professional tennis player beat former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Alejandro Tabilo,Tabilo had previously handed the 24-time Grand Slam champion a surprising loss at the Italian Open last year.

Back on clay for the first time since winning the Olympic gold in Paris last August, Djokovic said he didn’t have high expectations going into the match.

“I expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this, it was horrible,” said Djokovic, who made 29 unforced errors. “I did not have high expectations. I knew I’m going to have a tough opponent, and I knew I’m going to probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn’t expect.

“I was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I’m going to play this way. … A horrible feeling to play this way. Just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.”

Tabilo clinched victory on his second match point when Djokovic hit a service return too long. Djokovic had saved one match point in the ninth game when he was trailing 5-3 and 30-40 on his serve, producing a neat drop shot over the net, which his Chilean opponent couldn’t reach.

Tabilo has yet to drop a set against Djokovic. He joined Marat Safin and Jiri Vesely as the only players to have faced Djokovic more than once and not lost; all three hold a 2-0 record over Djokovic.

“It has been a tough year, so a little bit of the nerves were there,” Tabilo said in an on-court interview. “I remembered last time what I did well, and thankfully I served well today and it helped me a lot. It was an unreal match.”

A Monte Carlo title would have made Djokovic the only player to win each Masters event at least three times.

Djokovic, who recently lost the Miami Open final to Jakub Mensik, turns 38 next month — shortly before the French Open starts on May 25.

The Monte Carlo Masters is the first big clay-court tournament of the year on the ATP Tour.