Holger Rune was part of Season 2 of Netflix's Break Point, and in the show, the rising star described Novak Djokovic's aura as quite intimidating.
Novak Djokovic is arguably one of the greatest tennis players of all time. That's quite intimidating, especially if you have to go out and play a tennis match against him.
There is a legendary video of Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud before their 2022 Roland Garros final. Nadal's pre-match routine has him jumping all around and basically claiming the room while Ruud is just standing in one place and kind of composing himself to go out and face the Spaniard on a court where he dominated.
The video is such a powerful demonstration of how indimating some of these legendary players truly are. You can almost sense the tension in the room and you can certainly see doubt in Ruud. He didn't look like a man with a lot of confidence and he played like it. It was a pretty comfortable win for Nadal.
That's what Rune talked about in Break Point when he mentioned Djokovic. There is just an aura about him, and his resume is a big part of that.
"It's these players that you wanted to play in the biggest matches. He's an incredible player, first of all, but incredible mentality. I have so much to learn from that. Just the whole aura around him, it's super intimidating, you know."
As interesting as Djokovic is, Rune is a player who frankly doesn't care all that much. He's been described as cocky, but it's just part of him. It's certainly part of the reason why he actually beat Djokovic a few times already.
He just goes out there and frankly doesn't care who is on the other side of the net. Very few are capable of that, but it works. It helps because observing Djokovic can be very unsettling for a lot of players. Rune remembers those feelings well.
"I won the first set. I looked at him. He just walked to his chair. And I was like "Does this guy ever get angry?" With other players, you can feel that you get under the skin easily. Not with Novak. He's a different type."
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