The world’s top ranked junior player says his recent meeting with Novak Djokovic has left him with a desire to improve his own game as he bid to rise to the top of the men’s Tour.
Holder Rune secured a hitting session with the world No.1 in Monte Carlo after sending him a message via Instagram. The Danish 17-year-old won the 2019 French Open boys’ title and claimed his first win on the ATP Tour earlier this year. Doing so at the Santiago Open where he came through qualifying before defeating Benoit Paire en route to the quarter-finals.
Describing Djokovic as the ‘most complete player he has ever met’ Rune said their recent practice gave him plenty to think about over the coming months. Including areas of his game which he hopes to improve.
“When I practiced with Djokovic, I understood that he’s not strong in tennis only. He is the most complete player I have ever met both mentally and physically,” he told JuniorTennis Italia.
“I understood why many players have a hard time beating him: I left the court in Monte-Carlo with so much inspiration and I wrote down a lot of things I want to improve in the next weeks.”
The teenage rising star says he was given an insight into what it takes to reach the top of the sport. Djokovic has spent more weeks as world No.1 than anybody else in ATP Tour history since the ranking system was introduced.
“He showed me what it takes to become and be number one: it’s not just passion and good tennis, it’s so much more,” Rune said of the Serbian. “I think many players have the tennis to become number one but to be number one for such a long time as Djokovic, Federer and Nadal did, it’s beyond the next level. I want to master this, this is fascinating“.
Rune is coached on the Tour by Lars Christensen, who has been working with him since the age of six. Besides his home country of Denmark, he also trains at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France.
Despite his young age and being ranked 308th in the world, Rune has already set himself some big goals to achieve. Including an ambitious target of trying to crack the top 30 within the next two years. To put that into context Djokovic was 19 when he first broke into the world’s top 30.
“My goal is to become Top-100 this year and Top-20/30 within 2022: from this second step, I will work my way up to reach number one. I hope that I will be able to enter some good tournaments, I have no problem in playing qualification rounds so I hope some ATP tournaments will give me a chance by offering wild cards,” he outlined.
The root of Rune’s ambition comes from what he describes as adversity he faces due to where he comes from. Comparing his situation to that of somewhere such as Spain which has a significantly more sophisticated tennis system in place. Rune is only of only two Danish players ranked in the top 1000 on the men’s Tour. The other is world No.191 Mikael Torpegaard.
“I don’t get the same opportunities as if I was French, Italian, Spanish or from another big tennis nation: this makes the journey tougher.” He said.
“I didn’t get any wild card or extra benefits in Juniors and I still made records both in being the youngest player to win Roland Garros and Junior Finals in 2019 and I have been number one in ITF Rankings in 2019, 2020 and 2021.’
“I am used to fighting my way up and achieve my goals without an helping hand: I will do it again, you can make it difficult but you can’t stop me.”
Rune played at the Andalucía Challenger this week in Spain where he was seeded second in the qualifying draw. He lost in the second round to wildcard Carlos Sanchez Jover.
