"Use this confidence, not get cocky": Rune aware of danger of becoming too over confident ahead of French Open

Holger Rune had a really good run last year at Roland Garros taking out former finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to a quarter-final where he lost to Ruud in three sets.

The Danish player has been playing even better this year making his way into the 4th round of the Australian Open. He's kept a fairly high level for a while after that making two big finals on clay as well. The Monte-Carlo Masters was a run to the final and a loss, the same as the Rome Open. It left him very hungry ahead of Roland Garros but he's staying humble.

It's been a really great clay season for Rune who made two finals taking down some impressive players in the process. His win over Djokovic in Rome particularly impressed many even though Djokovic himself didn't play at his best. Rune is happy with the way things have been going lately:

“I'm super happy and excited to be back. And it's been a great clay-court season so far; I've been building up, playing some good matches and feeling in good shape and am looking forward to the start. This part of the season is one of my favourites. I try to play my best tennis here and everything I've done throughout the season is really to be as ready as possible for this tournament. I feel in great shape. I feel like I’ve been closer to playing my best tennis and hopefully I can play my best tennis here.”

With Nadal being out of the event, and the field wide open, Rune does feel a bit more pressure this year having high expectations from himself:

"I, for sure, maybe have more expectations than I usually have in Roland-Garros. But I also know that it's tricky and you have to kind of you know, use this confidence, not get cocky if we can say because that's where the danger is sometimes. You think, ‘Oh well, I played so well, now it's going to be easy,’ then in the first round you have problems and you can get angry and maybe lose the match.So I have been in this situation many times and I just want to try to play good tennis here at Roland-Garros."