Sofia | Rune and Sinner on track for semi-final clash

The Danish teenager Holger Rune showed his fighting qualities at the Sofia Open when he came back to defeat last week’s Metz champion from Italy, Lorenzo Sonego to reach his sixth tour-level quarter final of the season.

Today was a tough match... Lorenzo won a title last week, so he had a lot of confidence. I took my chances, played well and stayed in the moment, so I am proud Holger Rune

In a hard-fought two-hour and 19-minute battle, the 19-year-old rallied past the 27-year-old from Turin, 6-7(1) 6-4 6-3.

“I feel very good,” Rune said in his on-court interview. “Today was a tough match… Lorenzo won a title last week, so he had a lot of confidence. I took my chances, played well and stayed in the moment, so I am proud.”

The fifth seed struck 38 winners and will continue his chase for a second title when plays Ilya Ivashka, a 6-3 7-6(3) winner over local hero Grigor Dimitrov.

The young Dane is fourth in the race to Milan as he looks to qualify for the Intesa Sanpoalo Next Gen ATP Finals for a second consecutive year in what is proving to be the teenager’s breakthrough season.

Jannik Sinner going for his third successive Sofia title

Top seed Jannik Sinner continued his standout record in Sofia when he moved past Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-3 6-4 in 86-minutes as he hopes to retain the title for a third consecutive year.

The 21-year-old now holds a perfect 10-0 record at the ATP 250 event and will look to improve that when he plays Australian Aleksandar Vukic who in turn had to recover from a poor first set before dispaching the veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 1-6 6-4 6-3.

Sinner and Rune are just one match away from what could prove to be the match of the tournament between two of the game’s future stars.

In other action, Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, eased past fellow qualifier Ugo Humbert from France, 6-3 6-1while Italy’s fourth seeded Lorenzo Musetti had to battle hard to win a marathon match with Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-7(5) 7-6(8) 6-2.

Also htrough to the last eight are Lithuania’s Ricardas Majchrzak and Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler who respectively ousted the eighth seed from Germany Oscar Otte 4-6 6-2 6-4 and the Spanish second seeded Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3 3-6 6-2.