Holger Rune believes he is playing close to his 'best tennis' as he prepares for run at French Open
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Updated 26/05/2023 at 21:38 GMT
Denmark's Holger Rune arrives at the French Open in a fine run of form. The current world No. 6 thinks that he is "closer" to playing his best tennis and is hoping that he can convert those performances into a trophy in Paris. The 20-year-old is one of the outsiders to win the tournament outright in Rafael Nadal's absence this year. The French Open begins on May 28.
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Holger Rune says he is playing close to his ‘best tennis’ ahead of the French Open.
The current world No. 6 reached the quarter-finals of the 2022 edition of Roland-Garros and beat Novak Djokovic on his way to the final of the Italian Open last week. And with the absence of tournament stalwart Rafael Nadal, at 20 years old, Ruud might consider himself one of a group of younger players who are set to dominate the sport.
Rune has also won the Munich Open this season and speaking to Eurosport ahead of the French, he said that he was looking forward to the start of one of his favourite tournaments.
“I'm super happy and excited to be back,” he replied. “It's one of my favourite tournaments of the year.
“And it's been a great clay-court season so far; I've been building up, playing some good matches and feeling in good shape and am looking forward to the start.”
Rune reached the final of the Italian Open last week, where he lost to Daniil Medvedev, but he added that he felt in great shape.
He said: “This part of the season is one of my favourites. I try to play my best tennis here and everything I've done throughout the season is really to be as ready as possible for this tournament.
“I feel in great shape. I feel like I’ve been closer to playing my best tennis and hopefully I can play my best tennis here.”
Meanwhile Daniil Medvedev is cautiously optimistic he can do well at the second Grand Slam of the year, which he believes will not be "the same” without Rafa Nadal.
Nadal holds 14 Roland-Garros titles, a record, but the 37-year-old is yet to recover from injury and will miss out on a chance to make it 15.
With Nadal out of the running, world No. 2 and recent Italian Open winner Medvedev believes that that success has given him hope on his least favourite surface, if not overconfidence.
He said: "I, for sure, maybe have more expectations than I usually have in Roland-Garros. But I also know that it's tricky and you have to kind of you know, use this confidence, not get cocky if we can say because that's where the danger is sometimes.
“You think, ‘Oh well, I played so well, now it's going to be easy,’ then in the first round you have problems and you can get angry and maybe lose the match.
“So I have been in this situation many times and I just want to try to play good tennis here at Roland-Garros."
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