I’m just different! Rune would like to catch up with Alcaraz and Sinner. Will he make the first move in China?

He knows what the journey up and down tastes like. Holger Rune fills the pages of the sports section often. Especially lately, but not because of his tennis success. Will he get on the right track in China?

• Holger Rune is a former world number four
• He would like to be on par with Alcaraz and Sinner again
• He can now make a step towards that goal in China

I liken them to Alcaraz and Sinner. I wish I wasn’t. Holger Rune is a peer of the rising stars and his results have also been similar to the shining achievements of the Spaniard and the Italian.

And of course, he doesn’t resist such comparisons. He hopes to one day form a new Big Three with the aforementioned players and emulate Djokovic with Nadal and Federer.

but at the moment he can only dream of something similar. Although he has produced some very solid results this year, he has not yet added a fifth title to his collection.

And his last appearance at a major underlined his woes. The 21-year-old didn’t even make it past the first round at the US Open.

The inevitable happened and Rune dropped into the second ten of the ATP rankings. And he was basking in the fourth position of the ranking last summer.

Another Rune

The native of Gentofte knows that he is sometimes received controversially. His on-court speeches are sometimes too emotional. But this style suits him.

He is simply different on court than Federer was, for example. And he admits it. It suits his performance to give his emotions free rein. He’s not afraid to calm the crowd with an expressive gesture.

What’s hardly benefiting the young Dane’s career is the changes in the team. There have been several in the last year. It’s all a bit different for him.

And Rune is in a different position from the top tennis players this week. While most of the elite players are enjoying the spotlight at Laver Cup, he is fighting for valuable points and confidence in China.

He’s serving as the No. 1 seed in Hangzhou. On Saturday, he will enter his battles here against Japan’s Uchiyama.

The Frenchman Moutet shone at this Bicentennial. Quite a few of the seeded players are already out. We’ll see if Rune joins them, or if the Dane instead uses the space to kick-start his career.

Source: ATP, Telegraph, X