Holger Rune
disagreed with
Stefanos Tsitsipas and expressed his opinion that Grand Slam
tournaments are the most important in tennis.
The start
of the third day of the
ATP Finals left the first major casualty of the
tournament. Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas retired from the match just a few
minutes after the start of the first set (with Rune leading 2-1). With this,
the world No. 6 withdrew from the tournament and will be replaced in the next
match by world No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz.
This is
Rune's first victory in the Finals, and he will go into the last group match
with a chance to advance against Jannik Sinner, who still has his match with
Novak Djokovic pending.
After
overcoming Tsitsipas, Rune expressed his opinion that the Finals are an
important tournament, especially as they feature the top eight players of the
year. However, he acknowledged that Grand Slam tournaments are still more
significant:
"I
think the Nitto ATP Finals is the biggest ATP event we have. I think it's
super, super exciting event because I compare it a little bit to Formula 1, if
you can, because they have these smaller events with less players. It's very
intense. It's less matches. Top against top. Obviously you have one day rest
every time, so it's nice for the body also," he said in his post-match
press conference.
"I
think, I mean, if you ask me would I rather win a Grand Slam or win the ATP
Finals, my dream has always been to win a Grand Slam, but my dream is also to
win here. It's tough to make an order. But for me, for me, Grand Slams is,
yeah, the biggest thing we have in tennis," he continued.
Rune's last
round-robin match will be against the local hopeful, Jannik Sinner, who had an
impressive performance in the debut by defeating Tsitsipas. In the night
session, Sinner will face Novak Djokovic.