“I think a bad series of wins can be more troubling" - Why Holger Rune's 2022 Paris Masters title has affected his career negatively

Winning in tennis is never a bad thing... or is it? According to former professional Steve Johnson, a series of positive results can have negative affects on certain players, pinpointing Holger Rune as an example.

The Dane is currently out of action for the foreseeable future after tore his achilles tendon in the Stockholm Open semi-final. He is expected to return to action around the US Open in a long spell away from the court. Since that traumatic injury, he has showed his progress on social media, regularly updating his fans on his road to recovery at an astonishing pace.

While Rune prepares for his return, he was the main talking point of an interesting discussion shared between Johnson, John Isner and Sam Querrey on the Nothing Major Show.

“There’s no such thing as a bad win. I do think any match you win, you get a chance; even if you play poorly, you get a chance the next day,” he said. "But I think sometimes a bad series of wins, sometimes can be more troubling. Take Holger Rune in 2022, when he’s 19 years old, he wins Paris, that just throws him more into the spotlight, he’s now expected to win these Masters series because he did it at such a young age, and it’s hard to live up to those expectations week in and week out.”

Rune was always an exciting talent but showed this in full force when he won the Paris Masters in an incredible showing. Previously he had not made it past round two of a Masters 1000 event. It was already his fifth final in 2022, coming out on top in two of them before expertly getting the better of Novak Djokovic 3–6, 6–3, 7–5. While on paper this is a brilliant result, Johnson believed this has permutations for the future.

“I think if he lost to Novak in the finals there, he maybe doesn’t have the expectation the last couple of years that he had,” Johnson suggested. “Obviously, now that he’s hurt and out for the next year, that’s a real big bummer. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s a lot worse, because you’re at the forefront of the spotlight, you beat Novak, a Masters series title as a teenager. That’s hard to deal with, I mean, I would have killed for a Masters series title… but no single win is a bad win.”

Isner was quick to agree with his colleague, throwing in the fact that you normally improve throughout the event. “I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad win, especially if you win, and win playing poorly, it should free you up for the rest of the tournament,” Isner stated. "So often times, if you win an ugly match early on, you do tend to play better as that tournament progresses. So sometimes a bad/ugly win can really help you as that tournament goes on. During the course of the match, it’s miserable. If you’re playing poorly and you’ve got some angst on the court and you’re not on it that day, but if you get through that match, any win is a good win, in my mind, for sure.”

Querrey back his fellow American up. “I agree, I feel like sometimes when you played ugly and won, the next round, you played a great match,” he said. “It’s weird how in tennis that can work, where on Monday, you can not play well, and then on Tuesday, you’re like a different tennis player. It sometimes almost doesn’t make sense that the same guy can be so much better or so much worse day to day. I’m sure you guys have won tournaments, but if you go back to the first or second round, you played awful.”