At the age of 20 Holger Rune has already become the first man from his country to crack the world’s top 10 but he is hungry for more.
The Dane is currently at a career-high of sixth in the world in the ATP Pepperstone Rankings. So far in his career, Rune has won four Tour titles with the most prestigious of those being at last year’s Paris Masters. He has also reached the quarter-finals of the French Open twice and Wimbledon once.
“I improved a lot, both mentally, physically. I really took everything much more serious I would say and I was really determined to push every single day, every tournament I played,” Rune said during an interview with atptour.com. “I feel like after the [2022] US Open swing, I really worked even harder and I got to the level where I wanted to be.”
Rune says he is ‘willing to do whatever it takes’ to achieve his goals in the sport, including claiming the world No.1 ranking in the future. A position currently held by Carlos Alcaraz who is the same age as him. He has played a top 10 player on 10 occasions so far this season but has only won four of those encounters.
“I’m happy to be No. 6, but I’m not satisfied. And I don’t want to end at No. 6. I want to be No. 1, it’s no secret,” he stated. “Right now I’m also trying to work 10 times harder than I did in the beginning of the year. So hopefully, everything will come together.”
Coming into the North American hard court swing, Rune has recorded a win-loss record of 37-13 so far this year. His sole title triumph occurred on clay at the Munich Open. The youngster was also runner-up at two Masters 1000 tournaments in Monte Carlo and Rome.
He returns to action this week at the Canadian Open where he is the fifth seed in the draw. Rune could play Alcaraz in the quarter-finals who he currently trails 1-2 in their head-to-head. However, his only victory over the Spaniard was due to his opponent retiring.
Rune could be forgiven for secretly hoping for Alcaraz to lose early in the tournament which would open up the draw for him. Although, he has a very different perspective when it comes to playing the biggest names of the sport.
“I do really enjoy it. And I think why rivalries are so important for the sport is because it grows it bigger,” Rune said. “It gets more interest in the sport and if you only have one great player, of course, it’s nice for that one good player. But it’s not as competitive [as] if you have many.
“I think what Roger, Rafa and Novak did and also Borg, McEnroe, they [brought] tennis to another level and another dimension, and hopefully we can do that also.”
Rune will play qualifier Marcos Giron in his opening match in Toronto.
