Holger Rune snapped a 13-match losing streak against top-five opponents after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Barcelona Open.<\/p>\n
The victory marked the Dane\u2019s first title since Munich in 2023, in a match which handed Alcaraz just his second loss on Spanish soil in his last 31 matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world, it was such a great match,\u201d stated Rune<\/a>, in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, at the beginning, I was a bit stressed since Carlos [Alcaraz] plays big-time tennis and I had to breathe a lot and find my rhythm.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the beginning where he broke me, I played more my tennis and then it was a big battle \u2013 the first set was important \u2013 I know how it feels to lose such a first set, and, for me, it was super important to win it and gain the momentum, so I\u2019m so proud of myself.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning of the first set, where I got broken, I thought \u2018wow, how can I beat him?\u2019 and then I thought \u2018ok, I don\u2019t need to try to hit every shot on the line\u2019, so told myself what did Novak [Djokovic] do when he beat him.<\/p>\n \u201cI played that over in my mind the [2024] Olympic final, where they played an amazing match. I thought to myself to play that kind of style and make him play a lot of balls and I\u2019m very happy with how I stayed composed when it really mattered, I was also very brave when it mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n After his Barcelona adventures, Rune will return to the world\u2019s ATP<\/a> top 10 for the first time since April 2024 \u2013 leapfrogging Daniil Medvedev into the ninth spot.<\/p>\n Additionally, the former world No 3 hadn\u2019t beaten a top-five ranked player since the Rome Masters in 2023, where he beat Casper Ruud in the semi-finals \u2013 losing all 13 meetings against such players since then.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to say congratulations, not just for this week, but for Monaco,\u201d Rune said towards the Spaniard.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched your win, and you\u2019re doing something amazing for tennis and sport as well, congrats to your team \u2013 you guys are doing a great job, so I wish you good luck for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner\u2019s coach says that the world No 1 \u2018did nothing wrong\u2019 amid ATP Tour return<\/a><\/p>\n Alexander Zverev ties incredible Munich record as captures first title of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Alcaraz, who looked to be suffering from leg discomfort early on in the second set, was as gracious as ever, taking time to praise the victor after collecting his runners-up trophy.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I have to say congratulations on an amazing week,\u201d the four-time Grand Slam champion said.<\/p>\n \u201cComing from Monte Carlo where you had to retire, and then coming here to Barcelona showing great tennis and a great effort for the people watching tennis, I appreciate that.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to congratulate your team, we\u2019ve been seeing each other since [we were] 12-years-old, time flies, so I\u2019m just really happy to see us in this position, how far we\u2019ve been together, so just congratulations and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n The Spaniard\u2019s defeat \u2013 and with Alexander Zverev\u2019s Munich title \u2013 means that Alcaraz will slip back down to the world No 3 spot, sitting 35 points behind the German.<\/p>\n The post Holger Rune snaps 13-match losing streak against top 5 players after winning the Barcelona Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Holger Rune snapped a 13-match losing streak against top-five opponents after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Barcelona Open. The victory marked the Dane\u2019s first title since Munich in 2023, in a match which handed Alcaraz just his second loss on Spanish soil in his last 31 matches. \u201cIt means the world, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest ATP News<\/h3>\n