Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz praise one another at Roland Garros
ATP
Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz are both competing in the quarterfinal of Roland Garros and they acknowledged each other on social media.
Rune and Alcaraz are childhood friends and have previously played doubles together as juniors. Now both players have graduated from that level despite still being teenagers.
The 19-year-old Rune, who started the 2022 season outside the world's Top 100, has climbed to inside the Top 50 and will make his Top 30 debut at the end of this year's French Open after the Dane exceeded expectations with his run to the last eight.
Competing in his Roland Garros main draw debut, the young Dane pulled off one of the upsets of the tournament. He upset last year's runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round in four sets to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he will face fellow Scandinavian Casper Ruud.
Alcaraz, for his part, has had a more accomplished season than Rune. He's won two Masters titles, including the Madrid Open on home soil, and powered past Karen Khachanov to reach the Roland Garros quarterfinal, where he will face Alexander Zverev.
But before their respective quarterfinal matches, Rune was asked about Alcaraz and the spotlight that has been shining on him after a sensational season in 2022 has yielded four titles already.
Rune explained that his Spanish rival deserved all credit and attention going his way right now because he's proven himself against the very best in men's tennis. Alcaraz, for his part, congratulated Rune on Twitter.
"I think he deserves all the attention that he's getting. He's been doing some incredible things, beating Novak and Rafa. He deserves it and he's also improving a lot every time. Everybody has their own journey and this is mine"
"I’m going at my own pace, at my own kind of way, and improving at my own time. It’s great. Everybody has their own journey and this is mine."
