Holger Rune had a dreadful time in China last year, and he's not having the best of times this year, as he lost in his first match at the 2024 Hangzhou Open.
Rune has had a very interesting year so far, with a generally solid win total but without too many signature performances. He had a much better year last year because he at least made a couple of finals.
Most of those happened in the first half of the year, as the second one was dreadful for him, but overall, he still had more highlights than this year. A lone final at the start of the year is all that fans got from the young Dane, and things didn't look much better at the ATP 250 event in Hangzhou for him.
The Danish player faced a tricky opponent in his first match, as Yasutaka Uchiyama is a very experienced veteran who has perfected his game. The conditions in China help servers, and the serve proved crucial for the Japanese veteran.
Rune didn't come to China in spectacular form. He was beaten early at the US Open and wasn't playing spectacular tennis. It was also the first match he played in China, so it would always be quite tricky, as those first matches generally tend to be.
The first set was pretty rough for Rune, who tried to be aggressive and attack but it didn't yield any kind of results. He was missing quite a lot, and his opponent was also serving well overall, making things even tougher for him.
Rune lost his serve first but was able to break back. Still, it was Uchiyama who won the opening set 7-5 due to being more solid. He was struggling on his second serve, but 24 unforced errors in 12 games of play were just too much from Rune.
He did much better in the second set, opening with an early break and taking a 3-0 lead. He was hitting the ball much better as opposed to Uchiyama, who wasn't very precise. Rune ran into issues at 3-1, and despite saving the initial break point, he lost his serve to make it 3-2.
That was a huge problem for him because he couldn't keep up after that. He completely lost focus and started rushing even more, which wasn't very good. All the good winners he had at the start started to sail wide, and quickly the Danish player found himself facing more break points.
He got broken once more at 3-3 to make it 4-3 for Uchiyama, who was marching towards a spectacular upset win. Rune couldn't capitalize on the great start, losing five games in a row to go from up 3-0 to down 3-5.
He just wasn't playing well, nor did he find any inspiration to turn it around. Even when the minor chance appeared, the Danish player couldn't convert it. Uchiyama won the match 7-5 6-4 to upset the top seed at the inaugural Hangzhou Open.