14th July 2024 will go down as probably the most important date in Spain’s sporting history. The country not only rejoiced Carlos Alcaraz’s win at Wimbledon over Novak Djokovic, but they also won the UEFA Euro 2024. Amidst this euphoria, Spanish fans loved Danish player Holger Rune‘s congratulatory message for Carlos Alcaraz.
Alcaraz shared a picture of him holding the Wimbledon trophy on X, giving the broadest smile ever, while the caption read, “We’re still dreaming!” To this, Rune, who always appreciates his opponents and fellow participants, left a heartwarming two-word comment.
We’re still dreaming!
Getty pic.twitter.com/BYR1rcYFiy
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) July 14, 2024
Huge congratulations ⚽️
— Holger Rune (@holgerrune2003) July 14, 2024
Alcaraz’s achievement of winning two grand slams in a single year at the young age of 21 is incredible, to say the least. Naturally, several others, including Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas, took to social media to congratulate the Spaniard on his achievement.
Congratulations, Carlos! You’re shaping bit by bit into a sports icon
— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) July 14, 2024
21 years old. Two Wimbledon titles. Carlos Alcaraz is special. pic.twitter.com/QZ4VX0X7Iu
— Ramesh Kumar Bais (@rameshkumarbais) July 14, 2024
You are the real deal indeed pic.twitter.com/ZSPW8ceObx
— BAZUU (@Bazengake77) July 14, 2024
This was Alcaraz’s 4th Grand Slam and 2nd Wimbledon trophy. Only two other players – Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker- have won the Wimbledon title twice by age 21. Alcaraz joins both legends as the third player on that list.
Coming back to Rune, the Dane’s comment on Alcaraz’s post wasn’t just a one-time affair. In fact, despite being rivals, their friendship is pretty well-known in the tennis world.
Rune and Alcaraz’s incredible friendship
Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz have a lot of commonalities between them. While both of them are around the same age, with Rune being a week older, they also started their careers at the same time. Hence, despite being rivals on many occasions, Rune and Alcaraz developed has developed a wonderful friendship.
Readers will be surprised to know that Rune and Alcaraz faced each other on the court for the first time when they were just 11 years old. In fact, they have faced each other 3 times, with Alcaraz taking the lead 2-1.
Despite having a naturally dominating game, Rune still hasn’t quite reached the level of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as of yet. His best performance to date has been to reach the quarter-final of Wimbledon last year.
Although Rune has been a standout player and a gentleman, he has areas to work on to reach the pinnacle of the sport. That being said, the Dane is just 22 years old and had a lot of time to develop himself.