Holger Rune’s growth has almost stopped in the last year and a half. The young Danish talent had a lot of problems after winning the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy in 2022, although he had achieved prestigious results in the first half of 2023. Fans surely remember the finals reached in the Masters 1000 of Monte Carlo and Rome, which had allowed him to climb up to number 4 in the world ranking.
The feeling is that this level was still too high for Holger, who failed to maintain the right mental solidity and has fallen into a serious crisis. The former Top 5 has changed several coaches in the last year and he has not been able to find his certainties, even when he was next to Patrick Mouratoglou.
Holger Rune, Shanghai Masters 2024© Stream screenshot
Rune is still very young and has plenty of time to get back up, but he will have to be patient and proceed with the right calmness. The Danish player will play the ‘Six Kings Slam’ in Saudi Arabia this week, a prestigious exhibition where the winner will earn the whopping 6 million.
Among the six players attending this event, Holger is the only one who has never won a Grand Slam title yet, but he was invited by the organizers because it is one of the brightest prospects on the professional tour. Rune will face Carlos Alcaraz today and the winner of this match awaits Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
Rune must react
The 2022 Paris-Bercy champion has the talent to join the fight between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, who won all four Majors played this year. A period of huge changes for Holger Rune, who after a year below expectations, has changed the coach for the umpteenth time.
Holger Rune© @holgerrune2003 X account
A real “waltzer’ of coaches for Danish talent in recent years: Lars Christensen, Patrick Mouratoglou, Boris Becker, Severin Luthi, again Patrick Mouratoglou, Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh Rezayeh, Kenneth Carlsen and now the return to the first coach Christensen. This week’s “Six Kings Slam” featured former world number four spoke in an interview with ‘QuindiciZero’ about the pressures for his enormous talent and step, unlike Sinner and Alcaraz, never done.
On the constant change of coach, the Dane said: “I have learned a lot from all coaches. After working with the same coach for 15 years, I think it was important for me to try something different and get inspired by others and then come to understand what is best for my game and career. If I hadn’t done it then, I would have definitely needed to do it in another time. Now I’ve tried different approaches and all of them have been inspiring: either they work or they don’t. We all try to become the best tennis player possible and know when we are fulfilling our potential or not. Now I know much better what I need and what works for me”.
Dealing with pressure
The pressure of expectations. “Honestly, I would have deserved to be in the top 7 or 8 for results achieved between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. But the fourth place in the ATP ranking was not the result of my hard work, but a gift due to the results of other players over me who did not defend their points from the previous year. At the time I was not ready, my game was not top 4 and neither was my mentality.
Now I feel like I have a lot more experience and this part is important because you have to adapt in the right way to stay at that level. Some people do it faster than others, I now feel comfortable in all aspects of the game. This makes the mental aspect less challenging and generates energy to develop my game again. So now I feel good in everything”.
Holger Rune© @PrinceHolger_ X account
The 21-year-old concluded by talking about his rivalry with the world’s number one. “I like playing against Sinner, they are always high level matches. He is very professional in everything he does. Of course I like it more when I win, as in Monaco last year. Such games can be fought, but it is still nice to play them. As for Italy, I like it a lot, just as I like the Italians.
They have a lot of passion, which maybe is missing a little bit in Scandinavia. I have a lot of passion when I play and I think that’s why I like Italy so much, the fans transmit the energy that we all like”, concluded Rune. Next year will be crucial to understand the prospects of Rune, who must return to be competitive in the most important tournaments and find stability in his team.
