Holger Rune’s highly ambitious goals for the future can only be a good thing for the Danish youngster who has impressed on the Tour this season, according to Patrick Mouratoglou.
The 19-year-old won his maiden Tour titles in Munich and Stockholm earlier this year before staging a stunning run at the Paris Masters. In the French capital, Rune scored five straight wins over top 10 players en route to the title. In the final, he bounced back from a set down to defeat former champion Novak Djokovic.
Rune, who also reached the quarter-finals of the French Open in June, is among the series of young contenders tipped to potentially dominate men’s tennis in the future. In the year-end top 20, he is the second-younger player after world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz who was born a week after him.
Mouratoglou, who has known Rune since he was a teenager, was part of the tennis player’s coaching team during the later stages of the 2022 season alongside fellow coach Lars Christensen. The Frenchman is currently the mentor of Simona Halep who is provisionally suspended from the Tour after testing positive for a banned substance.
“I think everything is realistic,” Mouratoglou told Eurosport. “I think if you set limits for yourself, you’re not going to get past them anyway, so he’s absolutely right to set high goals for himself. It works for him.
“There is no shame in having great ambitions. Holger aims high all the time, but that’s also why he is capable of doing great things. He doesn’t necessarily set many limits for himself, and if he fulfils his goals, that’s great.
“If he doesn’t make it, that’s okay. He’ll put it off for six months, a year, two years, three years, as long as it takes for him to get there.”
One of the goals already set out by the Dane is to reach No.1 in the world as early as next year.
An ambitious target given the threat of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Co. Although he can take inspiration from Alcaraz’s rapid rise on the Tour in recent months.
“World No. 1 next year, is that realistic? Why not,’ Mouratoglou commented. “When you can do what he did, anything is possible. Now, it’s going to require him to be able to perform like he did in Bercy [at the Paris Masters], all year long, and especially in the Grand Slams and in the Masters 1000, where it counts the most.
“So it’s not going to be easy, obviously, but if it were easy to be the best in the world, we’d know already. Is that realistic? It’s not unrealistic. It will be extremely difficult, but it is not unrealistic.”
So what does Rune need to do to reach the top in 2023? According to his French mentor, he needs to win three out of the nine Masters 1000 events, as well as one Grand Slam. Although this is just a loose estimate and doesn’t factor in the performance of other players.
Rune is already the highest-ranked Danish player in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history. He is currently in 11th position which is one place below his career-high.
