Holger Rune tipped to break into tennis’ new big three by Todd Woodbridge – ‘I don’t see weaknesses’

Todd Woodbridge believes Holger Rune deserves to be included in tennis’ “new big three” alongside Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

The 22-time major doubles champion has insisted that Rune has been unfairly treated compared to the current focus on Alcaraz and Sinner and that the Dane should be in the conversation as one of the sport’s leading players.

“Holger Rune should be added to this list,” Woodbridge said. “It’s like he’s saying: ‘hold on just a minute, I am in this equation, and you need to start talking about me.’

“I see him as the game’s new antagonist; I think he’s bringing really big energy to matches that are providing another story within tournaments. He’s an in-your-face player who is working his tail off.”

As the current “big three” era of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer winds down, there is room for new talent to try and fill the void, as difficult as that may be.

Rune has gone the right way about things early in his career as he exploded onto the scene and cracked the top ten as a teenager, while reaching a Grand Slam quarter-final and winning a Masters 1000 title in the process.

Not only has he already got the better of Alcaraz and Sinner, but he’s also beaten other top-10 opponents including Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“I’ve been incredibly impressed watching his physical development; the building of the legs and the body to be robust, to be able to absorb everything,” Woodbridge said. “Talent requires ticking many boxes.

“One of the key ones for me is, yes, he’s a street-fighter with a will to win, but he has this work ethic which is making a huge difference and will be part of the reason he’s going to continue being successful.

“Currently I don’t see weaknesses; I only see opportunities to continue to make that better. What I love about him is that he’s not scared to win; he’s right in there and wants those victories.

“I’ve watched a lot of his practice clips and how he’s working on the power and movement. It’s really solid.”

Rune reached four straight ATP finals in late 2022 as he continued his rapid ascent, 18 months after debuting at tour level in 2021.

Although Rune has had an impressive start to his career, Woodbridge warned that inevitable challenges lie ahead.

“He looks for distraction in matches by antagonising his opponent,” he said. “And at this point, it’s often to his detriment. He’s going to have to learn to contain that better because I think he makes it harder for himself sometimes.

“[In the Roland Garros quarters last year] he annoyed Casper Ruud, and Ruud was flawless because of it. So that was a match he lost because of his behaviour, and some immaturity on his behalf in handling that big occasion.

“It’s going to be about learning what his game style is, and how good he is tactically at implementing that as he progresses, because as we know, after 12 to 18 months, the tour starts to get the play-book on how to beat someone.

“He is going to have to start making those adjustments, because he is a targeted player now.”

Tsitsipas once claimed Rune would burn out because he was “obsessed with tennis”, but Woodridge doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s not unhealthy. It’s a given you have to be that way,” he said. “I’ve never seen any player become great who’s not had that.”

He added: “We’ve had the Big Three, and this is the New Three.

“I never doubted that we would get great new players along, but what I didn’t expect is that we’d see this group of young players playing such high quality this early in their career. This is quality that guys play in their late 20s, but these guys are playing it in their late teens and early 20s already.

“That I didn’t think we were going to see.”

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