Holger Vitus Noskov Rune will play against Carlos Alcaraz, Brandon Nakashima and Juan Manuel Cerundolo in Group A at the Intesa San Paolo Next Gen ATP Finals at the Allianz Cloud in Milan.
The Danish 17-year-old player began the year number 473 in the ATP Ranking and moved up to number 109 after winning five ATP Challenger Tour titles this year in Bressuire, Biella, San Marino, Verona, Bergamo.
Rune beat Toby Alex Kodat to win the 2019 French Open boys’ singles title. In October 2019 he achieved the ITF Juniors ranking of world number 1 in the world after he beat Harold Mayot to win the ITF Juniors Finals.
The young Dane beat Benoit Paire in straight sets to reach the quarter final in Santiago in 2021 to become the youngest player to achieve this feat since Borna Coric in Umag 2014. He then lost to Federico Delbonis in straight sets in the quarter finals.
The Scandinivian rising star took a set off world number 1 player Novak Djokovic in the tie-break in the first round of the 2021 US Open after qualifying in his first attempt at a Grand Slam.
Rune reached his second ATP quarter final at the Moselle Open in Metz as a qualifier. In the French tournament he beat Lorenzo Sonego in three sets in the second round before losing to Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarter finals. Last June he won his first Challenger title in Biella.
Holger began playing tennis at the age of six because his sister played. His first idol was Rafael Nadal. He credits his mother and his lifelong coach Lars Christensen as being his biggest inspirations. He served as a practice partner at the 2019 ATP Finals.
Rune has been drawn in the same round-robin Group as Alcaraz, who won his first ATP Tour in Umag and reached the quarter final at the US Open and the semifinal in Vienna after beating Andy Muray and Matteo Berrettini.
“Carlos has been doing extremely well this year. All of the guys have been doing well this year, but especially Alcaras was impressive. He did well at the US Open reaching the quarter finals and played a good level of tennis. We are all here because we have had brilliant years and it will be interesting to see who takes the title because it is different playing against playerswho are all similar ages. I think rivalries are one of the most important things. When Stefanos Tsitsipas and Danil Medvedev play, the guys who are almost the same. It is interesting to watch because it is another aspect in the match. Also when you watch Novak vs Rafa or Roger vs Rafa it is fun and I think I would like to make rivalries with some of the players here ”, said Rune to the ATP Tour website.
Rune will make his debut in the innovative end-of-season under 21 tournament, but he has had arleady the opportunity to attend the Next Gen Finals in Milan four years ago. The Next Gen Finals have launched the career of Hyeon Chung, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner, who won the the first three editions of the innovative tournament. Danil Medvedev also took part in the first edition of the Next Gen Finals in 2017 and went on to win his first Grand Slam title last September.
“I watched it with my mother when I was very young. She bought tickets for Christmas, an early Christmas gift in 2017. I went to Milan to watch the first edition when Hyeon Chung won. Andrey Rublev and Danil Medvedev were also playing there. It was fun because back then when I was watching Medvedev, I didn’t think he would get to World Number 2 and he i almost number 1. It was really fun because there is an extra passion in it. It inspires you and makes you believe even more that you can make it. If you make the top eight at the under 21 event, you have a good chance to make it at the Nitto ATP Finals in the future”.
The Milan Next Gen ATP Tournament is testing new rules that could be implemented on the ATP Tour in the years to come.
“I like the rule systems. Especially the no-AD scoring because you have to be brave and take your chances. Also for the crowd, when I watched it, I thought was super interesting and the adrenaline raises”.
Last weekend Rune won his latest Challenger title in Bergamo, which also launched the career of Jannik Sinner, who won this tournament in 2019.
“I have been to Italy a lot of times. When I was younger, we used to go to Milan during the Christmas holidays. I know the place like home. I have been here tons of times, exploring different places. I have played a lot of Challengers this year in Italy. I played in Perugia, in th middle of nowhere and it was beautiful. There are so many great places here”, concluded Rune.
