Danish player Holger Rune thanked the ATP Tour for wishing him on his birthday on April 29. While this may seem like a casual exchange between Rune and the ATP, tennis fans who followed the Monte Carlo Masters 2024 closely, will realize it is a big deal. Rune, who turned 21, buried the hatchet with the ATP Tour with his “Thank You” message.
The incident goes back to the Monte Carlo quarterfinals a few weeks ago, where Rune lost to Jannik Sinner. After which, the Dane lambasted ATP on his X.
During the match between Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner, the umpire gave Rune a time violation. It was a controversial call; and later, after closer inspection, it was clear that the umpires had made a mistake. Rune didn’t say anything at all back then and carried on with the match. Andy Roddick was one big tennis name who called the umpire’s decision out later online.
Roddick also said that the umpires let Djokovic off the hook very easily after the Serb abused the crowd in his match against Casper Ruud, but penalized Rune for almost nothing.
Overall, the incident was mired in controversy. While Rune didn’t protest during the match, he completely lost it when he saw that the ATP Tour, on their social media handles, praised Jannik Sinner for the win. Sharing the ATP Tour’s post on X, Rune blamed them for unfair conditions, bad scheduling, blatant mistakes by chair umpires, and an overall disruption to the game. He was fuming over his X post, and so were tennis fans.
However, Holger Rune has let bygones be bygones and moved on from that incident. His latest message says it all.
When it comes to his form though, Rune is yet to find his best game on clay this season. In the BMW Open 2024 in Munich, he failed to defend his title, losing in the semifinals to eventual champion, Jan-Leonard Struff of Germany.
In the Madrid Open 2024 which followed, Holger Rune lost to Tallon Griekspoor 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 in the Round of 32. Rune will very likely travel to Rome next, to play in the Italian Open 2024.
At Age 21, Holger Rune Has Some Stunning Achievements to His Name
Holger Rune has already experienced being in the top 5 of the ATP world rankings in his short career, with his best ranking being that of No.4. He has been playing professional tennis for 4 years now and has some major accomplishments already to his name. Rune hasn’t won a Grand Slam yet, but his biggest win so far has been the ATP 1000 Masters title in Paris.
At age 19, Holger Rune defeated Novak Djokovic to win his first and only Masters title. Rune became the 16th youngest player, and the youngest ever Danis player, to win a Masters title, which was back in 2022.
In the 2022 Paris Masters, Holger Rune trumped other Top 10 players like Carlos Alcaraz, Andrey Rublev, and Hubert Hurkacz. It was an unbelievable feat for a teenager to defeat 4 Top 10 players in the same tournament, en route to his victory.
In his 4 years of professional tennis, Rune has got past other Top 10 players as well. He beat Stefanos Tsitsipas twice at the 2022 French Open and the 2022 Stockholm Open final; Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner at the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters, Novak Djokovic, for a second time, at the 2023 Italian Open; and Grigor Dimitrov at the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters.
Holger Rune has earned $8,753,285 prize money in his singles and doubles career combined as per the ATP Tour. His current rank is 12th in men’s singles.
