Total bundle: Rune has an athletic all-around recreation, with the capacity to defend, counterpunch and assault at a excessive stage. He additionally has a robust serve and an aggressive return, making him a formidable opponent to play in opposition to. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
Sneaky weapon: While Rune is comfortable to scrap for his factors on clay, he has beautiful contact and may finish rallies with savvy drop photographs. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
With the injury-enforced absence of Rafael Nadal, the long-reigning King of Clay, the males’s part of Roland-Garros wears an open look.
The standard storylines involving the contenders embody Novak Djokovic’s quest for a file twenty third Major title, Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to win a Grand Slam on the crimson dust and show that his breakthrough U.S. Open triumph final 12 months was the ushering in of a brand new daybreak, and Daniil Medvedev’s current “friendship” with clay, a floor that had tormented him till this season.
Bubbling simply beneath these speaking factors is Holger Rune, the first Dane to enter the ATP high 10. A peer of Alcaraz — the 20-year-olds had been born per week aside in April-May — Rune is a former French Open boys’ singles champion. Three years after his triumph in the juniors, he made the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros on his senior debut in 2022.
The Djokovic seal of approval
These aren’t the solely indicators of his pedigree, particularly on clay. He has the Djokovic seal of approval: the 36-year-old sees plenty of himself in the younger man and there are few greater compliments in tennis. Rune defeated the great Serb in the last of the Paris Masters final 12 months and beat him once more at the Italian Open final week.
Only 5 gamers have successful head-to-head data in opposition to Djokovic over the course of at the least three matches, which makes Rune’s 2-1 lead all the extra particular.
After his second straight loss to the Dane, Djokovic was moved to say that the long-awaited “shift of generations” had lastly come to males’s tennis, which has been dominated since the mid-2000s by the Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He additionally talked up Rune’s possibilities at the French Open, placing him in the similar bracket as the Spanish World No. 1: “Alcaraz, Rune… these guys are right there in contention, some of the biggest favourites.”
Asked what makes Rune such a harmful opponent, Djokovic stated, “He kind of reminds me of me, the way he plays. Really fit physically, great defence, but also great counter-puncher. He can hurt you from both the forehand and backhand side. Really solid serve. Aggressive returns. He’s very, very fast, very quick. Great anticipation. Very tough to get the ball past him. Just a very talented, dynamic, all-around player on all surfaces.”
If the win over Djokovic in Paris was a breakthrough second for the 6’2” Dane, the one at the Foro Italico felt like affirmation that he belonged amongst the elite.
“If it’s working against Novak, it works against almost anybody,” Rune stated of his 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 quarterfinal victory. He additionally spoke of how troublesome it’s to transform benefits and end matches in opposition to Djokovic as a result of the Serb begins to swing with much more freedom. “At the end, when Novak goes into this mode, nothing can come at him and he plays really free and aggressive,” stated Rune. “When you want to close the match, it’s really difficult.”
Swinging freely
Rune couldn’t win the Italian Open, falling to Medvedev in the last, however confirmed sufficient over the clay-court season to recommend that he can put collectively a deep run at Roland-Garros. He completed runner-up to Andrey Rublev at the Monte Carlo Masters and efficiently defended his Munich title, build up a 13-3 file (81% win-rate) on the dust this 12 months.
Rune’s mixture of explosive energy and beautiful contact — he struck an 83 mph forehand return winner off a primary serve and produced savvy drop photographs that stopped useless in Rome — supply him rally-ending weapons on clay. But he isn’t afraid to scrap for his factors both.
Perhaps most significantly, he is ready to produce his greatest in opposition to the greatest on all surfaces. He has a optimistic 13-10 file in opposition to gamers ranked in the high 10, which is rare for any person simply out of his teenagers. He beat 5 top-10 gamers on his strategy to the Paris Masters title final 12 months and has already recorded wins over Djokovic, Medvedev, Ruud and Jannik Sinner this 12 months.
“I play some of my best tennis when I play the top guys of the world,” Rune stated. “Playing juniors, I was number one at the Under-14, 16 and 18 [levels], so I’m used to playing as the one who has to win. It’s obviously different now, playing the big guys on the big stage but I’m excited about it. It’s better to play in a full stadium that’s loud than in front of nobody, so I see it as a positive.”
A nasty boy?
Rune’s competitiveness can generally boil over. He has had spats with chair umpires. He additionally appeared to make use of a homophobic slur in a match throughout his teenagers, which he apologised for and claimed was directed at himself not his opponent. He disagrees, nevertheless, with the characterisation of him as a ‘bad boy’, not too long ago saying, “I play with a lot of passion and energy… I don’t know why that should be a bad boy thing, to play with energy on the court. A bad boy thing is to break rackets. If I remember well, I don’t break a racket when I play.”
Rune desires to translate his drive to win into Grand Slam success this 12 months, persevering with an astonishing rise from World No. 511 to World No. 6 over the final two and a half years.
“Roland-Garros is the main goal of the clay season. I think I had the matches that I needed to be as well-prepared as possible,” he stated forward of the 12 months’s second Major. “I want to win a Grand Slam this year. I hope it can be achieved at the French Open. If not, I hope to make it in the other two Grand Slams.”
