After reaching the quarter-finals in a Grand Slam tournament at the Roland Garros for the first time in his career, Holger Rune was no longer able to deliver his best tennis and suffered five consecutive defeats in the first round.
The young Danish talent has received numerous criticisms for his behavior during and after the match played in Paris against Casper Ruud. The two argued on more than one occasion during the match and, at the end of the dispute, Rune shook hands with his rival very coldly without looking him in the eye.
The Dane then increased the dose at the press conference by attacking Ruud. “During the match he was unsportsmanlike: he talked to me several times. I told him not to talk to me: in short, we were playing a tennis match.
I didn’t want to hug him. In the locker room he yelled in my face, while his team was very kind.”
Rune’s outburst: “I love tennis”
The episode and the negative comments that followed seem to have left their mark on Rune’s mind, who vented on social media months later.
“In the last few months I have learned a lot, especially off the pitch. Now I understand how things work and how facts can be misinterpreted, twisted and used for the worst purposes by the media. That said, there are some things I would do differently if I could go back, but we can’t change the past.
We can only learn the lesson. I will try to manage the world of media in the best possible way. I didn’t choose tennis because of fame or media attention, but simply because I love to play. The joy of competing was hampered by the circumstances that arose.
Now I feel at peace. I realized that no one is going to kill my passion for tennis. I love tennis. I have read all your messages and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the best fans ever.”
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