Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune will play in the second quarter-final match at the 2024 Six Kings Slam.
Although the Spanish youngster is the second highest-ranked player at the 2024 Six Kings Slam, since it's an exhibition tournament, his ranking on the ATP Tour doesn't mean anything, which was reflected in the draw for the tournament.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are the seeded players, receiving a BYE into the semi-final round. As a result, Alcaraz will have to play the quarter-final match. His opponent will be Rune, who is the lowest-ranked player at the event out of the players who have regularly played in the last 12 months.
Still, the Danish player certainly shouldn't be underestimated, especially since winning the tournament would guarantee him 60% of his career prize money earnings up until now. Rune won over $10 million in his tennis career, and the winner of the Six Kings Slam will pocket $6 million.
That will certainly provide enough motivation for the young Dane, but the same applies to every player in the draw. At the end of the day, everyone will earn at least $1.5 million for participation.
The match will be played as the second quarter-final match at the tournament. It will be played on October 16th after the first quarter-final match between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, but it won't start before 9 p.m. local time.
The two have already met three times on the ATP Tour, with each player having success. In their first meeting, Alcaraz won at the NextGen ATP Finals in 2021.
Both were still teenagers at the time, and the young Spaniard triumphed 4-3(6), 4-2, 4-0 in the Fast4 format, which has been used at the NextGen ATP Finals.
In their first match outside of this competition, they played at the 2022 Paris Masters. Unfortunately, Alcaraz couldn't finish that match, but Rune was leading 6-3, 6-6(3-1) at the time of the retirement.
That is his only win against the Spanish player in his professional career. After that, Alcaraz won their only Grand Slam match, beating Rune 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4, at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Both are coming into this match in different forms. While Rune won only five of his last ten matches, Alcaraz was on a 12-match winning streak before losing to Tomas Machac in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
| Carlos Alcaraz | Holger Rune | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | H2H | 1 |
| 2 | Rank | 14 |
| 21 | Age | 21 |
| 51-10 | 2024 W/L | 38-21 |
| 206-53 | Career W/L | 132-83 |
Obviously, Alcaraz is the favorite in this match, but that doesn't mean Rune won't have a shot at winning it. Like Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer always found another gear when facing each other, the young Dane will certainly feel the same when playing against Alcaraz or Sinner.
Still, the four-time Grand Slam champion should be able to win this match, but don't be surprised if his Danish opponent takes the match at least to the third set. Then, anything can happen.
Prediction: Carlos Alcaraz to win in three sets.