Holger Rune had quite a disappointing outing at the US Open this year as he couldn’t get past the first round. However, American legend Andre Agassi has not read too much into that result and believes that Rune can be in the same league as the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the future.
In an interview with USA Today Sports, Agassi was asked which players could form the new Big Three. The 8-time Grand Slam champion was quick to name Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the first two. However, he later on added Rune in the discussion, believing that despite being an ‘underachiever’, he has the potential to make it big.
“I love Rune as well. I don’t like the word underachiever but you give me Rune’s game right now, I feel like I will step out there and make an argument for being a threesome instead of a twosome in that discussion,” said Agassi while taking a stand for Rune.
The question for the next ‘Big Three’ of men’s tennis arises because of the course of events that have taken place in the tennis world in the past 2 years. While Roger Federer called it a day in 2022, Rafael Nadal has been facing severe fitness concerns for more than a year now and Novak Djokovic too has started showing signs of depleting fitness. Thus, the era ruled by three of them is expected to end in a year or two.
According to Agassi, this is a great opportunity for Rune to regroup and bounce back stronger. The Dane was left disheartened with his loss in the very first round of the last slam of the year, to home boy Brandon Nakashima. In a tweet after the match, he accepted that he played ‘bad tennis’ and promised his fans that he ‘won’t let them down’ again.
Big bummer yesterday The best support, lots of happy tennis kids, perfect weather, perfect court and tournament and I played extremely bad tennis. No offence to my opponent, but I managed only 39% !!first serves , tons of unforced errors, this is not what I or anyone should… pic.twitter.com/jqBLyJRwbs
— Holger Rune (@holgerrune2003) August 27, 2024
A possible reason behind Rune’s loss could be the changes in his coaching unit this year. He had Boris Becker with him for a few months. But then that partnership didn’t work out.
The Dane then reunited with Patrick Mouratoglou for the second time but that deal also lasted for 7 months. After that, Rune joined hands with Kenneth Carlsen, a former Danish tennis player.
Rune would be worried after another disappointing Grand Slam performance as he was knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open 2024 as well. He has been considered as a hard court specialist of sorts when he burst on to the scene by defeating Novak Djokovic to lift the Paris Masters 2022 title.
But these kind words from Agassi could motivate him to do better and end the 2024 season in style.
