Holger Rune admits his rapid rise in the sport has made him a target for others but he is confident he can handle the pressure.
The 19-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last 12 months where he has climbed the rankings by almost 90 places to a career-high of ninth in the world. It was towards the end of 2022 when Rune enjoyed his biggest success on the Tour so far by winning the Stockholm Open and reaching the final of two other ATP 250 events. Then at the Paris Masters, he beat five top 10 players in a row, including Novak Djokovic, en route to the title.
Coming into this season, Rune has experienced mixed results so far with a first round loss in Adelaide followed by a fourth round appearance at the Australian Open where he was ousted in five sets by Andrey Rublev. He also won two matches in his country’s Davis Cup tie with India last weekend.
The Dane returns to action this week at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier where he will be the top seed in the tournament. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Rune said he is ready to deal with the pressure of becoming a higher-ranked player on the Tour.
“I’m ready for it,” he said.
“It’s going to be more like everybody who is going to play me wants to beat me even more than last year. But that’s fine. I mean, it shows that I did well and it’s a positive thing.
“Obviously it’s going to be harder matches from now on because I’m, in a way, supposed to win more matches than I was last year.
“But, as we all know, everybody can play extremely good on the tour. And if I’m not there [at a high level], I’m going to lose. So I have to be 100 percent ready to play my best tennis in every match. And if I don’t, I have to try to find solutions and be ready to fight.”
One of the people who has been guiding Rune on the Tour is Patrick Mouratoglou who is best known as the former coach of Serena Williams. The two have known each other for years after Rune attended the Frenchman’s academy as a teenager. Last October Mouratoglou agreed to join his team for what was initially expected to only be until the end of last year but this has since been extended.
“We’re going to continue, yes,” Rune confirmed. “Last year was obviously great. This year has been very good, too. And it’s nice to have him by my side. We have very good time together, together with Lars (Christensen) and my mum. The whole team is improving, everybody is open and I’m happy how I’ve built my team.”
Mouratoglou is also the coach of Simona Halep who is provisionally suspended from the Tour after failing a drugs test.
Rune, who received a bye in the first round, will begin his campaign in Montpellier against Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Husler.
