The ATP Tour season is coming to an end and after the Paris Masters final, fans will see only two more events.
After failing to advance from the group stage last year, Holger Rune was set to compete at the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals this year as he was set to be the biggest favourite to win the event. The young Dane was drawn into Green Group alongside Brandon Nakashima from the United States, Jiri Lehecka from Czech Republic and Francesco Passaro from Italy.
Rune, who will move to at least no. 12 in the ATP Rankings on Monday would be without a doubt the biggest favourite to win the group as Nakashima is ranked 49th, Lehecka 74th and Passaro 119th. However, the young Dane may not travel to Milan but for only good reasons.
Most probably, he will be travelling to another Italian city - Turin. Thanks to his sensational run at the 2022 Paris Masters, Rune became the second alternate following the withdrawal of Carlos Alcaraz, who was set to be the first seeded.
If Rune beats Novak Djokovic in the final, he will jump Hubert Hurkacz in the ATP Race and become the first alternate. With a big likelihood of one more withdrawal, he may compete at the 2022 ATP Finals instead of those for the upcoming generation of players.
In the semifinals of the 2022 Paris Masters, he defeated one of the players that already qualified for the 2022 ATP Finals, thanks to his superb performances in the past month, Felix Auger-Aliassime. After beating the Canadian, he said:
“It was an unbelievable match from my side today,” said Rune after his triumph. “I really was sticking to the game plan for the whole match and just taking every chance I got. Putting Felix under pressure, that’s what my game plan was all about, and I managed to do it almost perfectly. I am super proud how I handled everything.”
“I saw some statistic that [my] backhand is going well in this tournament,” said Rune when asked about his dominant win. “So I tried to use that a little bit, especially against Felix who has such a great forehand and serve.
“It’s good to play the game more on that side, and that was what I tried to do. To put pressure there, move him around, and it worked really well. I really feel the groundstrokes, the returns were much better than I did the last time I played.”
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