Holger Rune left fuming after racquet drama during Munich final, mother Aneke comes to the rescue
Holger Rune has already been involved in a few controversial and dramatic moments during his fledgling career and another such instance took place during his 2023 BMW Open final in Munich.
The Dane faced Botic van de Zandschulp for the title and started the match strongly. During the opening set, which he won 6-4, Rune sent one of his racquets to be regripped, which did not come back even after 20 minutes.
The second set, incidentally, went rather poorly for the teenager, who lost it 1-6. Fuming over the matter, Rune raised a complaint to the chair umpire, lamenting how long it took for the raquet to come back.
#ATPMunich
The REAL star of this first set is Rune’s mom re-taping his grip
Gasquet has (probably) never been so disgusted in his life https://t.co/MOdMWd7eYc
Rune told the umpire to call the supervisor and have his racket sent back to him, even if it wasn't regripped. He also said that 20 minutes for putting an overgrip on a racket was "insane," claiming that his record of doing the same was 37 seconds.
"It doesn't take 20 minutes to put an overgrip. Please call the supervisor and ask them to send it here back, no matter how it is. That's insane like, my record is 37 seconds," Holger Rune said.
Holger: "It doesn't take 20 minutes to put an overgrip. Please call the supervisor and ask them to send it here back, no matter how it is. That's insane like, my record is 37 seconds" 😭😭😭
Thankfully, Holger Rune's mother Aneke was on location to come to her son's rescue and was later spotted changing the grip on the racquet herself.
Holger Rune successfully defends his title at the BMW Open
Holger Rune successfully defended his title at the BMW Open in Munich by beating Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(3) in what was a rematch of last year's final, where the Dutchman was forced to retire due to an injury.
The Dane started the match well and won the opening set 6-4. However, Van de Zandschulp roared back in the second set and won it 6-1 to force the match into a decider.
Rune, unfortunately, began to experience some problems in his right arm during the final set and his opponent made the most out of it. Van de Zandschulp was serving for the match at 5-2 and was 40-15 up.
However, Rune produced a brilliant fightback and eventually won the set 7-6(3) to win the fourth title of his career after saving four championship points. The Dane thus became only the fourth player to defend their title at the BMW Open, with the others being Guillermo Perez Roldan, Franco Squillari and Alexander Zverev.
The 19-year-old has now won 21 out of 29 matches so far this season, with the BMW Open being his only tournament win. His victory in Munich comes a week after losing 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 to Andrey Rublev in the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
Rune will next compete at the Madrid Open as the sixth seed. This year will mark his very first appearance at the Masters 1000 event in the Spanish capital.