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Holger Rune, 19, won his first Masters 1000 on Sunday. He dominated in the final of the Rolex Paris Masters Novak Djokovic, six times winner of the tournament, after an epic final (3-6, 6-3, 7-5).
The Next Gen is pushing hard at the door. Not the one, blocked by a “Big Three” that now belongs to history, of Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas or Medvedev, but the one of Alcaraz, still world number one today, Felix Auger-Aliassime or Holger Rune. The 19 year old Dane has also shown himself this week by winning four top 10 matches over Hubert Hurkacz, Andrey Rublev, Carlos Alcaraz and “FAA”. And he kicked off his tournament with a win over the returning Stan Wawrinka, one of the few men who could look the “Big Three” in the eye.
And he didn’t stop there, as he ended his week by upsetting Novak Djokovic (3-6, 6-3, 7-5), denying him a seventh title in Paris and a 91st career title. In the process, Rune became the first player to beat five top 10 players before winning a tournament. Exceptional. So was his rise in the rankings, which saw him start the season at No. 103 and rise to No. 10 on Monday.
Holger Rune impressed with his grit. “Unbelievable! Lifting the trophy is an incredible feeling, something hard to expect frankly, because at one point I was close to defeat. It’s really an incredible feeling! I was full of emotions after the game, very moved. It is the best feeling of my life, of my whole career. It’s a little dream that came true. It’s another milestone to win a match like this against one of the best players in the world, against Novak. To win this last game was the biggest relief of my career. My level was very high. I’m thrilled that this is a reality.”
He never “respected” too much the legend he had in front of him. He shares his secret: “Before games, no matter what the game is, I always think I can win it. But I knew I would need more energy today. He has over 100 ATP titles if I’m not mistaken. I really had to use my youth, my iron will to put pressure on him, and to play well at the important moments: that’s what made the difference. He was very tough to beat I think it was one of the toughest games I’ve ever played in my life.”
“I was very nervous before I played Novak, it was very stressful, I had to calm down, believe in myself and drop my shots, because I wasn’t going to just win by just hitting the ball, I had to be creative, and that’s what I did, I did a little bit of bunting, I tried to wind him up, it didn’t always work, but sometimes yes, it worked enough for me to win.”
His coach, a certain Patrick Mouratoglou also spoke on the subject: “He’s been playing incredible tennis for the last three weeks. Also because there is an enthusiastic side that is obvious and that makes it possible for him to develop this tennis all week. We have to be very clear about the work he still has to do. He has a lot of room for improvement. There are a lot of areas where he needs to improve. We’re going to start working on that in the preseason. There is still a lot of work to do. He’s 10th in the world, that’s not where he wants to be. The level of play he has today is representative of his high level I think. We need to raise his average level of play and develop what it takes to make his top level of play even better than it is today.”
The French coach comes back to the family successes that are multiplying in tennis with a federation less present in Norway or Denmark for example: “I’ve been saying for 20 years that parents are essential. Twenty years ago it was not taken into account at all. It was obvious, the high level players were almost all with an omnipresent father or mother and that can be explained. I observed it and tried to understand the reason. Tennis is an extremely difficult sport with a huge number of disappointments and resilience is essential to get to the top. Parents are usually the only ones who believe 100% even in the worst difficulties and will always be there. It’s a foundation. There are a lot of reasons not to be balanced.”
