Holger Rune aware of target on his back for 2023 tennis season after sudden rise up ATP rankings – ‘I’m ready for it’

Holger Rune says he is ready to play with a target on his back as he prepares for his first tournament as top seed at this week’s Open Sud de France.

Rune had an incredible rise up the rankings in 2022, starting the year outside of the top 100 and ending it as world No. 9 following his stunning Paris Masters victory where he beat Novak Djokovic in the final.

The teenager lost in the fourth round of the recent Australian Open in a thrilling five-set match to Andrey Rublev and will compete for the first time since that loss on Wednesday.

“I’m ready for it,” Rune said ahead of the ATP 250 event in Montpellier when asked about the added pressure of being a higher ranked player.

“It’s going to be more like everybody who is going to play me wants to beat me even more than last year. But that’s fine. I mean, it shows that I did well and it’s a positive thing.

“Obviously it’s going to be harder matches from now on because I’m, in a way, supposed to win more matches than I was last year.

“But, as we all know, everybody can play extremely good on the tour. And if I’m not there [at a high level], I’m going to lose. So I have to be 100 percent ready to play my best tennis in every match. And if I don’t, I have to try to find solutions and be ready to fight.”

Rune will continue being coached by Patrick Mouratoglou, who coached Serena Williams for 10 years.

The Dane is favourite to win his fourth ATP title this week in at the Open Sud de France, in a field that also contains Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik, and is still looking to improve his game.

“I’m still young, so I don’t consider myself as having to win [all the time],” he added. “But obviously I’m the first [seed] of the tournament.

“It’s a good challenge because if I want to reach my goals and reach my dreams, I’m going to have to be first seed in tournaments, so it’s good to get used to it. It’s a good feeling.

“It’s better than being eighth [seed] or something. It’s different but when I played juniors, I was very often first seed so I can go back in and think how I did it there.”

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