"There's not really much to be happy about": Holger Rune rues French Open loss amidst fitness concerns

World Number 10 Holger Rune has rubbished any chance of himself reaching his true potential unless he can find a way to reach peak form after defeat at Roland Garros. Suffering a frustrating 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss against Lorenzo Musetti in the fourth round of the French Open on Sunday the 1st of June. This has added on to a disappointing loss in the third round of the Italian Open where the Dane once again underperformed to his own expectations.

Despite the fact Rune had entered his fourth round match as a lower seeded player with his counterpart Musetti ranked Two places above him in 8th on the ATP rankings. The loss has still angered the Danish star as he feels that his performance was below par claiming "There's not really much to be happy about". After levelling the match at One set a piece it would appear as if Holger Rune expected a better showing as the game progressed but for reasons potentially relating to a lack of training throughout the clay season this didn't happen.

Rune would go on to explain why his outlook on his recent performances are as cynical as they can be.

“I don’t think my backhand is good enough, and my serve. I hit the ball wrong – it’s physics."

“I haven’t really been able to train throughout the clay season, so physically I was very unsure of where I was. And I don’t think I was good enough there. I wasn’t quick enough on my feet. But my backhand and serve were really bad.”

Having the understanding to know where you need to improve is a good skill to have and for Holger Rune this looks to be something he is addressing as he moves forward in his career. Following on from his previous statements the Danish athlete would further explain his plans for the future.

"I just have to get better physically - The only thing I’m surprised about is that I trained so much physically leading up to Australia (Australian Open) and there was a bit of the same problem when I met Sinner. I also died there."

“I’ll never see what my potential is if I don’t get my physical form up to 100 percent. So I hope I do”.

Rune has already outlined his ambition to connect with professionals in the fitness field to help enhance his performance for the years to come and to keep him in the best possible shape.

“We’re talking to some people right now, some physical trainers. Something will definitely happen in the next few weeks”.

So with what looks like an immediate plan of action, it remains to be seen what the Danish starlet could achieve throughout his career. But having already accumulated 19 victories against top 10 players outside of Grand Slam events he will be hoping to take these performances onto the biggest stage of them all, as he has so far struggled with only 1 win from 11 matches against top 10 players at Grand Slam tournaments. At 22 years of age, there is plenty of time for his fortunes to change.

Rune now heads to Grass swing as he looks to prepare for his first scheduled tournament at Queen's later this month, hoping for an up-turn in form and to shake off any malaise from a mixed clay season. Looking to build off the back of a final victory at the Barcelona Open earlier this year against Carlos Alcaraz, Rune will be hoping to show excatly what he's capable of as the Grass swing gets underway.