Jannik Sinner looks unstoppable at the moment, doesn’t he? The World Number 1 dominated the summit clash of the Australian Open to defeat Alexander Zverev and defend his title Down Under. The Italian star gave hardly anything away to his opponent and was in control of the match right from the word go. While there has been a rise in young stars like Arthur Fils and Joao Fonseca, former tennis pro, Paul McNamee pointed to Holger Rune to end the dominance of the likes of Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
Interestingly, there hasn’t been a Grand Slam winner in the last five majors apart from Alcaraz and Sinner. Thus, the men’s tour is dominated by these two as they took home most of the big trophies. Amid this, young stars like Fils and Fonseca have shown tremendous promise to deliver on the big stage. However, McNamee feels that Rune’s best is yet to come.
He took to his official X handle and said, “So much chat about the new young guns like Fonseca, Fils, Tien, Mensik & co. For me Holger Rune looms as the threat to Sinner & Alcaraz (& Novak) …only player to truly threaten Sinner game wise at the @AustralianOpen… only 21, he showed he is getting better.”
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Rune had a tough path at this year’s Australian Open but managed to reach the pre-quarterfinals, losing against the eventual champion, Jannik Sinner in the last 16 clash. However, he managed to notch up some thrilling wins over the likes of Zhang Zhizhen and Matteo Berrettini. As a result, Rune’s promising performances left McNamee in awe of him and he was tasked with the challenge to trouble the likes of Sinner and Alcaraz in the upcoming tournaments.
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Meanwhile, Rune’s match against Sinner also drew some unwanted controversy. After the match, Rune opened up about the turn of events which caught the tennis world’s eyes.
Holger Rune rubbished Jannik Sinner controversy
During the match, Sinner took a medical timeout at a time when Rune was starting to dominate the proceedings. This didn’t go down well with many fans, who accused the Italian star of trying to break Rune’s rhythm by taking the timeout. However, Rune came to the defense of Sinner after the match.
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Rune revealed, “It’s fair that he got checked. I think it took longer than I expected. It was around ten minutes, maybe even more. So that was a bit brutal in the middle of the set. I just couldn’t move on. I had good momentum in that moment. It was not the worst timing from his side. No [I didn’t get an explanation about why it took so long]. They checked him on the court, and the umpire said he needed a further check, more checks.”
With his promising run in Melbourne, Rune would like to carry on the momentum in the upcoming tournaments. It’ll be interesting to see how Rune performs this season.