Holger Rune is confident his tennis is heading in the right direction despite slipping to his lowest ranking since October 2022 this week.
The Dane has dropped two places in the PIF ATP rankings to 15th in the world following his run to the fourth round of the French Open where he was beaten by Alexander Zverev. So far this season, Rune has compiled a win-loss record of 22-12 with his best result being a run to the final in Brisbane, as well as the semi-finals of three other ATP events. Against top 10 opposition he has won one out of four matches which was against Grigor Dimitrov in Monte Carlo.
“I don’t think about it, and it’s not a problem. Of course I won’t be the top seed for the grand slams, but I won’t run into someone like Alcaraz in the opening rounds either,” Rune recently told Danish media about his current ranking.
Elaborating further about his game on the court, the 21-year-old believes he is playing at a better level than before. He is currently coached on the Tour by Patrick Mouratoglou who he reunited with earlier this year. The duo also worked together on the Tour between October 2022 and March 2023. He has also spent brief periods with Boris Becker and Severin Luthi but both of those collaborations failed to materialise into something long-term.
“I feel that I play twice as well now compared to when I was ranked number four last year,” he said.
“Back then I had a bit of difficulty winning some matches over the summer, but now I feel that I am in a good flow. I play good tennis, work hard and structured and am more stable in my game.”
Rune says the key for him is to keep ‘trusting the process’ as he aims to return back into the world’s top 10. He is one of three men currently in the top 20 aged 21 or under. The other two are Carlos Alcaraz (No.3) and Ben Shelton (No.14).
“I can’t see it 100 percent on the results yet, but there is nothing else to do but trust the process. Both mentally, physically and tennis-wise, I am on the right track,” Rune commented.
“I can never say that it is satisfactory to lose in the fourth round at the French Open, but there were clearly some better strokes in my game, says Rune.”
Rune’s next tournament will be at the Cinch championships in London which will get underway on Monday. He is currently the fifth highest-ranked player entered into the draw.
