Holger Rune - Suddenly a sand in the gears
Last season, Holger Rune catapulted himself into the top 100 players in the world with remarkable performances. At the moment, the Danish teenager's rise has stalled.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Feb 11, 2022, 12:01 pm

Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune is still young. Just like the 2022 tennis season. The unsuccessful start to the season should not be overrated, Rune showed what he is capable of in the past season: the Dane started outside the top 400, then he won four titles on the ATP Challenger Tour, even took a set from Novak Djokovic after qualifying at the US Open. The reward was the first entry into the top 100 players in the world, at the moment the round is in 88th place.
The record on the ATP tour this year is still unsatisfactory at 0: 4. In Adelaide 2, Rune lost in round one to Corentin Moutet, who he had lost out to in Adelaide 1 qualifiers. At the Australian Open, round one was also over, but the five-set defeat against SoonWoo Kwon was to be expected according to the world rankings: The South Korean is almost 40 places ahead of Rune in the ATP charts.
Rune plays significantly more tournaments than Alcaraz
Now the start of the Golden Swing on the South American clay courts went horribly wrong. Rune lost to Roberto Carballes Baena in Cordoba and earlier this week in Buenos Aires to Argentina's Sebastian Baez of the same age. A first major stress test will take place in a few days in Santiago - there Holger Rune has 57 points to defend from last year: After successfully qualifying, the now 18-year-old reached the quarter-finals there.
In any case, it is interesting that Rune will continue its philosophy of playing a lot in 2022. Which is in clear contrast to his peer Carlos Alcaraz . The Spaniard started the 2022 season directly at the Australian Open, after the narrow defeat against Matteo Berrettini he immediately took a break from the tournament. However, Alcaraz is in a better position due to his successes last year: As the current number 29 in the world, he does not have to worry about starting places in ATP tournaments. Holger Rune still has these worries.