"Need to improve every day": Holger Rune "ready to give all" at 2023 ATP Finals in Turin

Holger Rune has declared that he is motivated to give his all at the 2023 ATP Finals in Turin but has also admitted that it will be a challenging tournament.

The World No. 10 had a rollercoaster of a season prior to qualifying for the 2023 ATP Finals, with some great highs and difficult lows. In the first half of 2023, he defeated Novak Djokovic at the Italian Open in Rome, won the Bavarian International in Munich, and made it to the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters.

However, his chances of making it to Turin were in doubt after he failed to put together back-to-back wins over the summer and autumn. This included a first-round defeat to Roberto Carballes Baena at the US Open, after which he parted ways with his coach Patrick Mouratoglou. However, after a rough time on the Asian Swing, the 20-year-old announced that six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker would be coaching him for the remainder of 2023 and the results began to show immediately.

In the last few weeks, Rune was able to clinch the final available spot in Turin with a run to the semi-finals at the Swiss Indoors Basel and to the quarter-finals at the Paris Masters. In a recent interview with ATP ahead of the season-ending championship, the Dane reflected on his season.

"If I continued the way that I did the first six months, I would be in easily. Definitely a lot of eagerness to be able to be there this year. Obviously last year it would have been great to make it [as a direct qualifier], but I didn't expect to make it at all," he said.

Nevertheless, Rune stressed that he was ready to "push" and give his all amid a tough field including Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, along with Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Alexander Zverev. Indeed, Rune will need to be on the ball from the beginning, as his first Group Stage match will be against World No. 1 Djokovic.

"It's definitely a tough field out there- You have to be good. You cannot just be at your level. You need to improve every day to be able to just stay there, and if you want to go even more up, you have to do big things in your game, in your physicality and everything. So it's a constant process. It's OK. It's a good fight. It's the last push of the season. I'm really ready to give all," he continued.