French Open - 'He should have more respect' - Holger Rune accuses Casper Ruud of 'shouting in his face'

Updated 02/06/2022 at 10:22 GMT

Holger Rune and Casper Ruud were involved in a fiery French Open quarter-final which saw a handshake controversy at the end. Rune has now also accused Ruud of shouting in his face after the match concluded, a claim which has been quickly denied by Ruud's father. Rune also had to deny shouting at his mother to 'leave' the court as he lost to his Norwegian opponent at Roland-Garros.

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Holger Rune has slammed Casper Ruud for showing him a lack of respect following their fiery French Open quarter-final match, as a spat between the two Scandinavian tennis stars also embroiled their parents.

Rune claimed that Ruud gloated in his face after winning 6-1 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 on the night, with the Norwegian now taking on Marin Cilic in the semi-finals on Friday.

"The team is really nice and sweet, but then he (Ruud) goes straight to me and shouts 'JAAA' straight up in my face,” Rune told Ekstra Bladet.

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“I thought ‘what the hell are you doing?’. You just do not do that. You can cheer as much as you want on the court, I do it myself when I win. But that's just a lack of class. He should have had more respect.”

Rune’s claims have since been denied by Ruud’s camp, with his father Christian telling Eurosport: “It is a simply a lie from Holger.

“It is nothing more to talk about, because it is a pure lie. Our focus is now on the match on Friday against Cilic.”

In response, Rune's mother Aneke told BT: "The father was not there when it happened, he had left. It was only the physical trainer or therapist. It was while Holger was waiting for doping control, so the father can not comment on that. One thing is that you shout in my son's face. Another thing is that the father is lying to the press."

Cilic advanced to the last four after overcoming Andrey Rublev 5-7 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6 (10-2) to reach the semi-finals at Roland-Garros for the first time.

Ruud and the 2014 US Open champion will go head-to-head in what promises to be a mouth-watering encounter on Saturday afternoon.

The Dane was clearly angered after the alleged incident on a disappointing night for the teenager. Rune came under fire after sharing a frosty-looking handshake with Rudd following the match, and was forced to deny shouting ‘leave!’ to his mother during the match.

The handshake incident was discussed at length by Eurosport experts Tim Henman and Alex Corretja, with the latter confident that the 19-year-old will mature in time.

'He needs to control his emotions! - Corretja and Henman on Rune shouting at box

He said: "There's a lot of positive things. I like the way Rune plays, the way he moves, the way he goes for it.

"But of course, I think if someone is in the locker room and tell him like, 'what about that handshake?', it's like, you need to go and say 'Casper, you played very well. Congratulations, all the best for you. I'm going to try my best for the future. I wish I can be there the next time and beat you.'

"But he's just young. And this is my opinion. He's such a nice kid, you see him smiling and laughing on the court. But of course, he has to learn and of course, he's disappointed. He feels like he can beat him and that's why I think he shakes hands like that."