Nineteen-year-old Holger Rune has made a lightning-quick rise up the ranks. Just over a year ago, Rune earned a chip at the high-stakes pro tennis casino when he took a set off Novak Djokovic at the 2021 US Open. To continue the casino analogy, since then, Rune has raked in enough winnings to fill a wheelbarrow.
Ranked No. 103 at the start of ’22, in May, Rune won his first ATP singles title on clay at Munich. Later that spring, at his Roland Garros main draw debut, Rune upset ’21 finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and went all the way to the quarterfinals. In October, there came a second victory lap, Rune winning an indoor event in Stockholm, in the finals once again beating Tsitsipas. This fall, he’s also been the runner-up in Sofia and Basel.
Now comes an even greater breakthrough, Rune having reached the finals of the Rolex Paris Masters. Ranked No. 18 upon arrival in Paris, Rune will soar to 12 should he lose tomorrow—and ten with a victory. With this week’s run in Paris, Rune has now been a finalist in four straight tournaments.
“To do one percent better every day, that’s really what I’m trying to do,” said Rune today following his 6-4, 6-2 semifinal win over Felix Auger-Aliassime. “To improve every small thing, to try to get things better, no matter if it’s warmup, a little more better every day, because it’s the small things that make the big difference.”
Rune’s dazzling ascent reminds me of a conversation I had with Jim Courier five years ago. The Top 50 by then teemed with far more players over the age of 30 than had once been the case. Amid advances in fitness, nutrition, equipment, and other sports science disciplines—and that other workplace factor known as increased compensation—a view had taken hold that it was far less likely for teenagers to blossom as they once had.