Holger Rune returned to action 11 months after last playing, with the Dane winning a Davis Cup rubber after his Achilles injury from last autumn.

The former world No. 4 now ranked 144, earned the Davis point at home against Bulgaria and said coming back to the courts had been a long-term struggle.

“It’s been, it’s been pretty brutal,” he said.

“Obviously a super unfortunate injury that happened 11 months ago, but we have trained a whole lot. I’ve gotten up every day and done my rehab to be able to stand here today.

“So I’m proud of myself, and this is the perfect way for me to start here in Denmark, in front of the best crowd in the world. So thank you so much for coming out and supporting.”

 Rune ruptured his left Achilles tendon in Stockholm last October and has been out ever since after surgery. 

He and his team were stuck in their Doha training base last March as the US attacked Iran, sparking the partial shutdown of flights due to the ongoing conflict. 

Main photo:- Holger Rune returns ©ATPTour.com

Karen Khachanov broke a dry spell in impressive style on Thursday as he stunned US Open third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime  6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 for a place in the third round on Thursday..

Victory marked Khachanov’s first Grand Slam win over a top 10 opponent since June, 2019 and his first here against a member of the ranking top 5..

FAA will suffer a big rankings drop after playing a semi-final here a year ago.

The Canadian said he was feeling poorly from the start. “It’s tough to talk about anything else than how I felt physically. 

“After a set and a half, I just couldn’t feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and couldn’t recover. I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn’t.

“So that’s the end of the tournament for me, and now back to the drawing board.”

Despite his condition, FAA matched his opponent with a dozen aces while striking 43 winners and 47 unforced errors over almost three and a half hours.

“I’ve never felt quite like that. I’ve had cramps before. I’ve felt, okay, tired towards the end of matches, but in a normal way.

“This was abnormal a little bit, and there were no signs in the last couple of days and no signs this morning, as well. I’m not sure. I’m going to run some tests and see what comes out of it.”

FAA missed the chance to become the third from his country to record 50 Grand Slam wins, joining Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov,.

Khachanov completed a matched set of Grand Slam third round spots with his upset win.

Third seed Auger-Aliasime has been playing without  coach since his early Wimbledon loss.

But that situation cannot go on for much longer.

“In the next couple of weeks I should announce a name clearly to everybody. It’s moving forward, but for now I don’t have anything more to say.

“I need to digest obviously this disappointment, but it’s going to take me just a day or two and go back home, obviously talk with the people that help me, doctors, fitness coaches, physios, and nutritionists.

“Then I go back to training.for Davis Cup, which is also important for me. We haven’t played in Quebec, or I haven’t played in a long time, especially in my hometown. Now I’m looking forward to that.”

Ninth seed Taylor Fritz, who lost the 2024 final, dropped just two game as he smothered Italian Mattia Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.  Luciano Darderi got an win for Italy over Czech Dalibor Svrcina 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4.

It was the most one-sided win for the Californian in his entire Grand Slam career.

Australian wild card Dane Sweeny got the best of injured Lorenzo Musetti, defeating the Italian who years has been compromised by physical problems 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Main photo:-Karen Khachanov celebrates beating third seed FAA – by ATPTour.com

Alex de Minaur saved face in an excruciating all-Aussie clash at the ATP event in Washington as he defeated the teenaged son of Australian icon Lleyton Hewitt to reach the quarter-finals.

The freshly married de Minaur played for the first time in more than three weeks after losing a Wimbledon fourth-round and then getting hitched to British player Katie Boulter.

Cruz Hewitt, 17-year-old son of Lleyton, took the 6-2, 6-3 loss as de Minaur reached the last eight of the pre-US open tune-up.

But facing the son of one of your tennis mentors was not easy for the sixth-ranked winner. who admitted that his own awkward form needs some quick improvement.

“It was definitely weird, I knew I was going to play him (Cruz) on the Tour some day, but I didn’t actually expect it to be this week,” de Minaur said.

“Even all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we’ve both grown up. I’m glad I managed to get through, but I’m sure we’re going to have many battles in the years to come.”

But those sentiments could not distract from the oddity of paying the son of a mentor and Davis Cup captain.

“I expected Lleyton to be),in the box, and helping his son. But we both didn’t know how to kind of act, right?

“It was definitely a weird situation, but now that this has happened the next time we’ll all be ready for it, that’s for sure.”

De Minaur, 27, will now line up against Brandon Nakashima, a winner over seventh seed Jakub Mensik 7-6 (5), 3-  6-4.

De Minaur is defending his 2025 title in the US capital and somehow felt lucky to escape with the win over Hewitt, Jr after a long-ish layoff.

“(This is the ) longest I’ve been without touching a racket and it’s probably the worst I felt on court after this. The body was in bits, aching all over the place.

“I felt like I aged about 20 years over 13 days but the one thing I definitely told my team was that, ‘Yeah, I can’t take this much time off’. 

“I need the body to at least keep moving because if not it’s tough to get back on the horse.”