Complete package deal: Rune has an athletic all-around recreation, with the flexibility to defend, counterpunch and assault at a excessive degree. He additionally has a robust serve and an aggressive return, making him a formidable opponent to play towards.
Sneaky weapon: Whereas Rune is completely satisfied to scrap for his factors on clay, he has beautiful contact and might finish rallies with savvy drop photographs.
With the injury-enforced absence of Rafael Nadal, the long-reigning King of Clay, the boys’s part of Roland-Garros wears an open look.
The favored storylines involving the contenders embody Novak Djokovic’s quest for a file twenty third Main title, Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to win a Grand Slam on the pink filth and show that his breakthrough US Open triumph final yr 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.
Effervescent simply beneath these speaking factors is Holger Rune, the primary Dane to enter the ATP prime 10. A peer of Alcaraz — the 20-year-olds had been born per week aside in April-Might — Rune is a former French Open boys’ singles champion. Three years after his triumph within the juniors, he made the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros on his senior debut in 2022.
The Djokovic seal of approval
These aren’t the one indicators of his pedigree, particularly on clay. He has the Djokovic seal of approval: the 36-year-old sees numerous himself within the younger man and there are few larger compliments in tennis. Rune defeated the nice Serb within the ultimate of the Paris Masters final yr and beat him once more on the Italian Open final week.
Solely 5 gamers have profitable head-to-head data towards Djokovic over the course of at the very least three matches, which makes Rune’s 2-1 lead all of 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 because the mid-2000s by the Massive Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He additionally talked up Rune’s probabilities on the French Open, placing him in the identical bracket because the Spanish World No. 1: “Alcaraz, Rune… these guys are proper there in competition, among the greatest favourites.”
Requested what makes Rune such a harmful opponent, Djokovic stated, “He type of jogs my memory of me, the best way he performs. Actually match bodily, nice defence, but in addition nice counter-puncher. He can damage you from each the forehand and backhand facet. Actually strong serve. Aggressive returns. He’s very, very quick, very fast. Nice anticipation. Very robust to get the ball previous him. Only a very proficient, dynamic, all-around participant on all surfaces.”
If the win over Djokovic in Paris was a breakthrough second for the 6’2” Dane, the one on the Foro Italico felt like affirmation that he belonged among the many elite.
“If it’s working towards Novak, it really works towards virtually anyone,” Rune stated of his 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 quarterfinal victory. He additionally spoke of how tough it’s to transform benefits and end matches towards Djokovic as a result of the Serb begins to swing with much more freedom. “On the finish, when Novak goes into this mode, nothing can come at him and he performs actually free and aggressive,” stated Rune. “If you wish to shut the match, it’s actually tough.”
Swinging freely
Rune couldn’t win the Italian Open, falling to Medvedev within the ultimate, 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 on the Monte Carlo Masters and efficiently defended his Munich title, build up a 13-3 file (81% win-rate) on the filth this yr.
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. However he’s not afraid to scrap for his factors both.
Maybe most significantly, he is ready to produce his finest towards the very best on all surfaces. He has a optimistic 13-10 file towards gamers ranked within the prime 10, which is unusual for anyone simply out of his teenagers. He beat 5 top-10 gamers on his option to the Paris Masters title final yr and has already recorded wins over Djokovic, Medvedev, Ruud and Jannik Sinner this yr.
“I play a few of my finest tennis once I play the highest guys of the world,” Rune stated. “Enjoying juniors, I used to be primary on the Underneath-14, 16 and 18 [levels], so I’m used to enjoying because the one who has to win. It’s clearly totally different now, enjoying the massive guys on the massive stage however I’m enthusiastic about it. It’s higher to play in a full stadium that’s loud than in entrance of no person, so I see it as a optimistic.”
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, nonetheless, with the characterisation of him as a ‘unhealthy boy’, not too long ago saying, “I play with numerous ardour and power… I don’t know why that needs to be a foul boy factor, to play with power on the court docket. A nasty boy factor is to interrupt rackets. If I bear in mind nicely, I don’t break a racket once I play.”
Rune desires to translate his drive to win into Grand Slam success this yr, persevering with an astonishing rise from World No. 511 to World No. 6 over the past two and a half years.
“Roland-Garros is the primary objective of the clay season. I feel I had the matches that I wanted to be as well-prepared as potential,” he stated forward of the yr’s second Main. “I wish to win a Grand Slam this yr. I hope it may be achieved on the French Open. If not, I hope to make it within the different two Grand Slams.”