“Novak Djokovic is the most selfless guy out of the Big 3,” Holger Rune hails the Serb as the GOAT after training with him ahead of the Serbian Open
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Holger Rune, Novak Djokovic
It has been a rough year for the current World No.1 Novak Djokovic as he has missed the majority of the tour till now. Owing to his vaccination status, the Serb was not allowed to enter Australia and United States and hence he missed some major tournaments this year. He only came back in action at the Dubai Tennis Championship where he was knocked out by Jiri Vesely in the quarterfinals.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner is desperate to defend his Roland Garros title as he want to get more matches under his belt before taking court in Paris. He recently featured at the Monte Carlo Masters and was beaten by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Spaniard after beating Djokovic reached the finals. However, now the Serb has returned to Belgrade to feature at the Serbia Open.
Ahead of starting his campaign at the Serbia Open both Novak Djokovic and Denmark’s rising talent, Holger Rune were seen taking the court and practising. Rune shared how Djokovic gave him tips on how he can improve. The Danish teenager hailed him as the GOAT and claimed him to be the most selfless among the ‘Big 3’. Interesting Rune trained with Djokovic last year aswell and the improvement are well and truly in front of everyone to see.
“Djokovic is the GOAT. He is the most selfless guy out of the Big 3. We trained together last year and he gave me many advices on how to remain calm and perform well in difficult moments,” the 18-year-old Dane said about the World No. 1 as Djokovic has helped him massively in improving various areas of his gameplay.
After Novak Djokovic’s training, Holger Runes upsets fifth seed Cristian Garin in the opening round of the Serbia Open
Ranked 72nd in the world, Holger Rune has showed terrific fight against some quality players on different surfaces this season. Rune bowed out in the opening round at the Australian Open against South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo but he did not go down without a fight. He played a gruelling match that stretched to five sets before surrendering to the 24-year-old Korean. He reached the Round of 16 at the Open 13 and also forced a third set against Matteo Berrettini at the Indian Wells. He defeated Aslan Karatsev at Monte Carlo after winning the Challenger title at Sanremo.
he has continued that form in Belgrade as he started off his campaign at the Serbia Open with a huge upset. Rune has beaten fifth seed Cristian Garin, who has not been in great form recently even on clay which is the Chilean’s favourite surface. The 18-year-old completely dominated Gari and won 6-1, 6-3 to progress through to the next round at the Serbia Open. Rune had 17 break points as he converted six of them to pull off the first upset of this event.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has received a bye from the first round and will face Laslo Djere in the second round of the event. Djere recently defeated compatriot Hamad Medjedovic winning 6-4, 7-5 in the all an all Serbian first-round clash. Djere will be a part of another Serbian clash as he will go up against the World No.1.
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Atrayo Bhattacharya
(193 Articles Published)