"I'm too old for you": Veronika Kudermetova reveals Holger Rune slid into her DM's...despite being married

Veronika Kudermetova revealed in a recent interview that Holger Rune had messaged her, and she had to clarify that she is married. The former world No. 9 – who has been married for 8 years – commented that the Danish tennis player messaged her on social media, but after Kudermetova's response, he never greeted her again.

The world No. 41 responded in an interview on the podcast of Elena Vesnina, her former doubles partner, who retired in 2024. In it, Kudermetova mentioned the message Rune allegedly sent her in the past, which led her to clarify that "I'm probably too old for you," as she mentioned.

The Russian was a name to be feared on Tour until a couple of years ago, with great results on both hardcourts and claycourts. She has accumulated two titles and reached five finals in her career so far. Kudermetova also has a quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros and semifinals at the Madrid Open and Rome Open. She holds 16 victories against top-10 rivals (10 of them against top-5 players).

Kudermetova has lost prominence in singles on the Tour over the last couple of seasons, where she went from being a top-10 player to a drop in the ranking over the last couple of seasons, which saw her out of the top-50 for almost a year. In recent months, she has made a significant climb, currently positioned at No. 41 in the live ranking.

The 28-year-old tennis player has, however, maintained strong results in doubles, where she recently won the Wimbledon title alongside Elise Mertens. It was her second doubles final reached at SW19, the previous one back in 2021 – precisely with Elena Vesnina. She is currently No. 5 in doubles and has a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the category.

During the interview with Vesnina, one of the moments that highlighted the episode was when Kudermetova revealed that she received a message from her colleague Holger Rune, current world No. 9 on the ATP Tour. "Rune recently texted me. I told him, 'Boy, I'm probably too old for you. If you looked at my Instagram, you’d see I have a husband.' He replied, 'Oh, sorry.' After that, he stopped saying hi to me."

The 28-year-old Russian is married to Sergei Demekhine, a tennis coach and former tennis player. Demekhine met Kudermetova when she was just 15 years old and began as her coach. Towards 2015 – when Kudermetova was 18 years old, she formalized her relationship with Demekhine – 13 years her senior – whom she ended up marrying a couple of years later in 2017.

"At 16, I liked him, but I didn’t think about anything else," commented the former world No. 9. "It’s probably my upbringing that influenced me. Such thoughts were unacceptable to me." Demekhine has been her coach throughout Kudermetova's career, who is currently world No. 42.

The 22-year-old Danish player has been among the world's best for several years. Since winning the Paris Masters in 2022, Rune has been consistently within the top-15 and has been constantly pointed to as one of the names that can dominate the tour in the future. The young star is 6 years younger than Kudermetova.

Rune will return to the court this Tuesday, July 29th, at the Canadian Open, where he is the 5th seed and it will be his first tournament since Wimbledon earlier this month. The Dane faces Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in what will be his debut.

On the other hand, Kudermetova has already debuted in Montreal, where she overcame Cristina Bucsa in three sets. She has secured a second-round clash against 29th seed Olga Danilovic, which will also be played this Wednesday. Additionally, the Russian is competing in the doubles draw alongside her colleague Elise Mertens, where they are the 4th seeds.