Holger Rune believes he can compete with Sinner and Alcaraz. Can another chat with Andre Agassi get him there?

MASON, Ohio—Once upon a time, Holger Rune saw Novak Djokovic driving a Porsche. Naturally, as a wannabe tennis star, the Dane decided he had to do the same thing. Never mind that he didn’t have a license to get behind a wheel yet.

Rune doesn’t regret the decision.

“It’s a nice car, to be honest, it’s very nice,” he says.

Even better, he can use it as an example of how he should play tennis.

“I was very consistent,” he said after a recent win. “I played aggressive, but took the right decisions, didn’t play too wild. You could say I played maybe like a Porsche, but controlled, not full power—that can be risky.”

Is comparing yourself to a $125,000 sports car a sign of delusional cockiness? For most of us, yes. But there’s some truth buried in Rune’s hubris. He’s a high-end athlete, with explosive speed and a live arm that, on the right day, lets him do just about anything he wants on a tennis court. But like a Porsche with an inexperienced driver, he can also step on the gas a little too hard. That goes not just for his shots, but his reactions to the ones he misses. At 22, Rune no longer looks to his coaches for help as desperately as he once did, but he still gets exasperated easily when the engine misfires.

On Wednesday, Rune faced Frances Tiafoe in a rematch of their 2024 Cincinnati semifinal. That day, the American handed the Dane a bitter defeat, 7-6 in the third after saving two match points. Early on today it looked as if another loss might be in the works. Rune came out spraying the ball around and complaining about his vibration dampener; by the third game, he had sent his racquet back to be restrung. Was it another case of him losing patience too quickly?

Not this time. With a new frame, Rune was a new man. He broke Tiafoe with a hard slice backhand pass—not a shot that everyone owns—and saved a break point with a huge serve-forehand combination.

By the sixth game, Rune was in charge from the baseline, and Tiafoe’s coach, David Witt, was warning him that “he’s starting to sit on the forehand.” When Witt advised Tiafoe to try a body serve, Rune was nimble enough to get out of the way and rip a backhand winner with his return. At 4-4, Rune broke with a virtuoso pair of points. First he tracked down a good Tiafoe drop shot and slid the ball at a sharp angle for a winner. Then he belted a backhand down the line for another, more emphatic winner.

Tiafoe is one of the sport’s great athletes, but Rune was barreling past him in the fast lane.

“Looking at the first set, I think it was high level from both of us,” Rune said. “I think I played some good tennis and I had a lot of energy.”

📲 🖥️ Click here to stream a replay of Holger Rune vs. Frances Tiafoe on TennisChannel.com

Unfortunately, there was a bigger problem for Tiafoe than Rune’s energy level. At 4-4, he hit a good crosscourt backhand that won him the point. Instead of celebrating, he winced. He felt something ominous on his left side. The trainer did what he could, and the Tylenol did what it could, but Tiafoe had to retire, with a few tears in his eyes, down 6-4, 3-1. Last year, he was a finalist in Cincinnati, and nearly a finalist at the US Open. Now a repeat of that semifinal run in New York is looking like a long shot.

Rune, by contrast, will have little to defend at the Open. He’s coming off two straight first-round losses there. He’s too good, in general and on hard courts, to stumble early again, right? His 2025 season makes his form tough to predict from one week to the next. He was runner-up at Indian Wells and the only player to beat Carlos Alcaraz on clay, in the Barcelona final. But he also crashed out in the first round at Wimbledon.

That last defeat, coupled with the continued success of his one-time rivals Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz, was enough of make Rune seek some outside counsel. Last month in Washington, D.C., he spent three days with Andre Agassi, and they connected again after the National Bank Open in Toronto. Rune marveled at Agassi’s way of seeing the sport, and his ability to “make things simple.”

“We spoke about the pace of my serve, the pace of my shots, how I mix up my game,” Rune said of their post-Canada conversation.

Two pieces of Agassi advice seem telling: He has tried to help Rune “slow the game down,” and to learn to win without his best. Those sound like the next steps for Rune. He has the tools—the serve, the return, the speed, the ground strokes, the confidence, the will to win. But what happens when things don’t go as planned? Can he learn to stay patient and make smart decisions?

I liked what he told Tennis Channel about how he turned the first set around against Tiafoe—it was process over results. (Watch the full interview above.)

“I tried to focus on some of the small details I’m working on in my game,” he said. “Details on the serve and the shots and trying to find my groove. From there I took my time, tried to get into the match.”

Twenty years ago, Roger Federer inspired Rafael Nadal, who inspired Djokovic. Rune is looking at Sinner and Alcaraz in the same way now, and hoping for the same inspiration.

“I definitely believe that I have a good game that can, as I’ve shown in the past, also challenge them and take matches from them,” he says.

Can he find it in time for the last Slam of the year?

“Today I stepped up,” said Rune, who could play another American, Taylor Fritz, next. “I’m happier with my level. It’s going in the direction I want it to.”