French Open preview: Holger Rune. The future world number one? Why not!

The turn of May and June is reserved in the tennis world for the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the season is hosted by Paris and the Musketeers’ Cup is traditionally contested by the world’s top players. Let’s take a look at the biggest favourites for the only clay grand slam on the circuit.

The first round of Roland Garros starts on Sunday 28 May. For the very last time, we have focused on the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. In earlier previews, we have already previewed the ambitions of last year’s semi-finalist Alexander Zverev.

We also got to the world number seven Russian Andrey Rublyov and Daniil Medvedev, who in six appearances here has reached the quarter-finals the furthest and still ranks among the favourites. Our eyes now turn to the ambitious Dane Holger Rune.

Holger Rune

The 20-year-old tennis player from Denmark is certainly not hiding his ambitions. His goal is to become world number one in 2023. He made this announcement after winning the Masters in Paris. Half a year later, just before the peak of the clay court season, he is not taming his ambitions. Winning as many tournaments as possible in the shortest possible time is Rune’s vision ahead of the second Grand Slam of the year.

The Dane’s strength is his excellent physical game. He can add great aggression and is able to motivate himself during the match. Even Novak Djokovic paid tribute to his backhand.

Words of praise for the Dane also came from Andrey Rublyov. He praised Rune’s excellent movement on the court, reading the game. The Dane often changes the pace of the game and it is extremely difficult to have an advantage over him in an exchange.

Last year’s French Open was the debut for the native of Gentofte. And it was a very successful opening. The young Dane flew into the Paris Grand Slam like a big water, he didn’t lose a set in his opening three matches and surprised everyone with a victory over Greece’s Tsitsipas in the eighth round. He was stopped in the top eight by the late finalist Casper Ruud.

Current form

This year’s clay court part of the season is going great for Rune. Two tournaments, two finals. That was the beginning of it. In Monte Carlo, he fell to Rublyov in his final match. He lost 7::5, 2::6, 5::7. But the Munich event became his prey. He defeated the Dutchman Van de Zandschulp in the third set tiebreak and thus defended his triumph in the Bavarian capital.

The third clay court event of the season saw the Dane eliminated in the second round. He was defeated by the Spaniard Davidovich-Fokina.

However, this was Rune’s eleventh duel in eighteen days in three different countries. After twelve days without a competitive match came the ride through the Masters tournament in Rome, when he was stopped only in a tight final duel by Daniil Medvedev.

Let’s take a closer look at the valuable scalps the 20-year-old Dane won during the spring tournaments. In Monte Carlo he defeated his later conqueror Medvedev in two sets and also the former world number three Thiem.

He needed three sets to advance past Sinner, the current world number eight. In Munich, he lost only one set in four matches.

In the French Open dress rehearsal in Rome, he got past Novak Djokovic. This is the second time he’s beaten the recent world number one since last year. He also beat Casper Ruud at the Italian Open. Against Noro, it was Rune’s first win after four previous defeats.

Finally..

Rune has big ambitions and his results match them. He’s beaten all his biggest rivals recently. Of the four clay tournaments he has participated in, he has reached the final three times. The Danish tennis player will be one of the biggest favourites at Roland Garros this year.

Source: ATP