Holger Rune shared a photo of himself in transit to Turin to compete at the ATP Finals, but tennis fans were bewildered at how different he looked.
In a post he shared on Instagram, the Danish star was wearing a beanie hat that covered the entire top part of his head, seemingly on a flight to Italy. Rune is among the Top 8 players who have qualified for the prestigious year-end championships. It will be the first time he will play at this event.
The draw for the ATP Finals has been released with the first round-robin match scheduled to start on Sunday, November 12. Rune landed in the same group as defending champion Novak Djokovic who defeated him at his last tournament in Paris, fourth seed Jannik Sinner, and sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Rune's look raised plenty of eyebrows on social media with several fans confused on whether it was actually him. One fan wrote, "Why does Holger look nothing like Holger?" while quite a number felt that he resembled Canadian singer Justin Bieber.
"Legit thought this was Bieber and then I looked again," One fan tweeted. Comparisons with fellow tennis players were floated too. "Khachanov might look like this if he shaved his facial hair," one wrote while a second fan thought it was Germany's Daniel Altmaier.
"No this is not him, I refuse to believe it’s him," One user was clearly not trusting what his eyes were saying. "Nah it feels like his friend took his phone and posted a selfie," a perplexed fan wrote.
Rune has enjoyed an upturn in fortunes in the past few weeks. He came out of a slump and played some of his best tennis this season making the semifinal in Basel and the quarterfinal at the Paris Masters. The 20-year-old attributes that good form to the guidance of German coach Boris Becker. It will be fascinating to see how he fares on his ATP Finals debut.