Holger Rune used to receive a lot of advice from Novak Djokovic, and he recently opened up about how that helped him.
Rune first emerged on the ATP Challenger Tour before playing regularly on the ATP Tour. He made a pretty quick impact with some notable performances. Oddly enough, some of his early big wins came against Djokovic.
He played him really well at the US Open when Djokovic was trying to compete for the calendar Grand Slam. He also took him down at the Paris Masters, which was his first big trophy and the time he secured a Top 10 debut.
They practiced often together, and Djokovic used to give him a lot of tips, which helped Rune. He talked about that with Punto de Break ahead of the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters, a place where they practiced often in the past.
"He has taught me a lot. He has always been very nice to me. I remember that we trained here about five years ago, before I started playing Challengers, and he was very interested, asking questions, giving me advice and also opening up about what his career was like. For such a young player, that means a lot."
While some of his contemporaries might skew towards Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, Rune has always been drawn to Djokovic and how he does things. He holds him in very high regard for what he did in tennis and for being very good to young players.
"He is one of the best of all time and feeling that he wants to help you is incredible. I admire him a lot, also for this. He gave me advice on a mental level, because he is a beast, but he told me that he was human, not a superhero."
"He also feels the emotions that we all feel, he just manages them in a different way compared to the rest of the players. He told me that's one of the reasons he was more successful than everyone else."
The young Dane, who is now fully established in the Top 10 on the ATP Tour, also admitted that he doesn't receive advice from the 24-time major winner anymore.
"It's impressive to see him, the same with Rafa and Roger. They are impressive. My relationship with Novak is different now, we are competing. I've beaten him twice, so he doesn't give me advice anymore. He's someone nice."