The legendary John McEnroe believes Holger Rune has the talent to challenge Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the men’s game, but feels the Dane falls short in a couple of areas.
Rune broke into the top 10 of the ATP Rankings in 2022 on the back of reaching the last eight at Roland Garros and winning the Paris Masters. The following year, he reached two more Grand Slam quarter-finals and peaked at No 4.
However, he failed to kick on in 2024 and dropped to as low as No 17 before returning to the top 10 in April this year.
He was seeded 10th for the French Open, but was sent packing in the fourth round by eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti, going down 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Former world No 1 McEnroe says the 22-year-old still has a lot of work to do to reach the top, but he is starting to “learn” how to deal with pressure.
“Holger was the guy that I thought would be the third guy with the new big three, Alcaraz, Sinner, I thought it’d be Rune,” he told TNT Sports.
“Rune got a lot to prove to try to get with the big boys. I remember when he played Ruud here a couple of years ago, he sort of brushed him off when he lost. Like, ‘how could I lose to this guy?’ And so it’s taken him a while to start to understand what it takes. But he’s learning that.
“He seems to be more settled. Got the old coach back. Mom still seems very involved. There’s a fair amount of families like that, but seems to be on the upswing again.
“I think that’s the reason he’s seeded 10 instead of seeded four, because concentration goes in and out.”
ATP Interviews
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner get ‘scary’ prediction from former world No 1
Tim Henman makes bold Novak Djokovic prediction as he looks beyond Roland Garros
After finishing runner-up to Jack Draper at the Indian Wells Open in March, Rune won the Barcelona Open as he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the final but then went off the boil in the next four ATP Masters 1000 events.
His fitness was also questioned by McEnroe.
The American added: “It’s also conditioning. That happened to be the hottest or second-hottest day of the tournament.
“He almost, to me, tapped out. He was this close to like it’s over, and he looked really negative. I mean, it was one of those days where it’s like a war of attrition.
“I think he’s, you know, again, he’s… I like where he’s headed, but he’s still got some work to do to close that gap.
“So, this would be, this is a huge match for these two guys to show like who’s got the mojo a little bit more, who can really press the Alcaraz, Sinners of the world.
“I mean, there’s, you got Alcaraz, you’ve got Sinner, then you got Novak. Dare I say, Rune is someone of a distant third in terms of who can win it. Then you’ve got these two, Zverev and I’d throw Tommy Paul into the mix.
“I’m not saying that he’s there yet, but it’s one of those five, six guys that’s gonna get their way up to three, four in the world soon, because there’s other guys dropping like flies.”
Watch every moment of the French Open live and exclusively on TNT Sports and discovery+
The post John McEnroe names one player who should be up there with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz appeared first on Tennis365.
Leave a Reply