Holger Rune embraces adaptability through tumultuous season in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI—Holger Rune had to raise his level.

The former world No. 4 has spent most of 2024 in third gear, down to No. 16 in the rankings while peers like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have taken over the Grand Slam stage. Where Alcaraz and Sinner have split the first two majors, Rune is yet to reach a semifinal, suffering early losses as ill-timed injuries and team turmoil threatened to ruin his season.

But something has clicked on the fast courts of the Cincinnati Open: the 21-year-old found himself meeting the moment against beloved veteran Gaël Monfils, roaring back from a set down to reach his first quarterfinal in the Queen City.

“I said at the beginning of the tournament that I would need to raise my level in order to go deep, and I think today I did it,” he smiled after overcoming Monfils on Friday.

You can fool yourself a little bit and say you feel confident for the US Open without these wins, but the confidence these matches are giving me, that I’ve been able to find solutions to play better: this is the most important thing. It’s definitely a big confidence boost to be in the quarters now. Holger Rune

“I felt like I’m actually playing well and not just fighting well or competing well, or staying mentally tough. I was actually playing well: serving, forehand, backhand, volleys. Everything was going better together and that’s a really good match.”

Rune has rarely looked so centered in the 12 months that followed his initial breakthrough, one that began at the end of 2022 with a run to the Rolex Paris Masters title. Playing under coach Patrick Mouratoglou, the young Dane toppled four Top 10 players and stunned Novak Djokovic to win the biggest title of his young career.

He reached two more Masters 1000 finals and back-to-back Grand Slam quarterfinals the following season, but Rune’s ascent has largely stalled amid numerous personnel changes. He has shaken up his team no less than five times since last April, hiring and firing the likes of Boris Becker and Severin Luthi with Mouratoglou filling in the gaps.

Rune’s family has been the sole constant through this unstable stretch, his mother Aneke an ever-present fixture in the player’s box with father Anders and sister Alma in supporting roles.

“That’s great to really feel their support; it’s an amazing feeling. In good and bad moments, they are there for me. They’re the ones you can talk to about anything.”

Just days after a wrist injury forced him to withdraw from the Summer Olympic Games—where he had hoped to play mixed doubles with childhood idol Caroline Wozniacki—Rune split with Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ longtime coach, for the second time. He further revealed countryman Kenneth Carlsen would become his new head coach, a historically precarious position, but one Rune is optimistic will stand for the foreseeable future.

“Kenneth knows me very, very well, since I was young. When I was working with Lars [Christensen], he was helping with some of the sessions when I was 12, 13 years old. So, we have a good relation and it seems to working well,” said Rune, citing his cultural connection to the former world No. 41.

“You can speak about some more private things without everyone else hearing it, which is nice—especially when you’re on the match court! But if Kenneth was Swedish or whatever, it wouldn’t make a big difference: either you like the person or they don’t click with you.”

Rune is also espousing an eagerness to embrace adaptability these days, believing it to be a key ingredient to his rise back up the rankings.

“Tennis is also about playing in different conditions every week,” Rune mused. “We have different weather, outdoors or indoors, clay or grass, whatever. I think it’s nice how Cincinnati is known for one thing, Montréal is known for another thing. Then, we come to the US Open, which is another thing! The best players in the world are the best at adapting.”

He was further undaunted by the prospect of facing a fan favorite like Monfils, coming out as a fan himself.

“Gaël is 37 now, getting closer to the end of his career, but still producing some incredible tennis. Who would not support that? They’re going to see me for the next 15 years! They have time to see me. But he’s been great for the sport and he still is.”

That positive approach translated to positive tennis from a set down to the former world No. 6: Rune channeled the quick conditions into attacking tennis, taking the net away from Monfils to serve out his most impressive result in over three months.

“I was trying to adapt a little bit to the conditions as well as his game in the first set, he explained. “I think he was serving very, very strong…I started doing some of what he was doing in his earlier match: meeting the ball a bit earlier, come to net every time there’s a shot ball to try and close off the points.”

When listening to questions, Rune’s eyes grow wide as understanding flashes across his face, involuntarily assuring the speaker they’re on the right track. If his lack of a poker face is itself a tell, it tracks that alchemizing confidence out of nothing may be one last problem he’s yet to solve.

“You can fool yourself a little bit and say you feel confident for the US Open without these wins, but the confidence these matches are giving me, that I’ve been able to find solutions to play better: this is the most important thing,” said Rune. “It’s definitely a big confidence boost to be in the quarters now.”

All the more reason, then, to believe this raised level is no mere Ohio oasis, and instead something he can carry into the US Open.