World No. 5 Holger Rune was jokingly accused of 'stealing' Novak Djokovic's personal locker room at the Shanghai Masters by the Serbian player.
Rune, like a kid in a candy store, was wonderstruck when he learned that he was allocated a designated locker room in Shanghai which was last occupied by Djokovic in the 2019 edition. Djokovic is not playing in the Shanghai Masters this year as the ATP Tour makes its first pitstop in the Chinese city in four years.
The young Dane shared the video on his personal account on X of all the players who had previously used that particular locker room, along with a poster of himself on the outside. Since 2005, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the only players to have been tenants.
The 20-year-old could not conceal his delight for being part of such an illustrious company as he sent a tweet along with the video that read, ''How cool is this locker room,'' in which Rune added a winking face emoji. Djokovic would react to the tweet saying, ''You stole my locker room!??"
Obviously, there is no grudge or bad-mouthing between the two stars who enjoyed some friendly banter. Rune might not have seen Djokovic's reply as he is preparing for a crucial second-round match against Brandon Nakashima on Friday, in what will be his debut appearance at the tournament.
Rune is defending so many points in the closing weeks of the 2023 season. He's got two title defenses lurking, in Stockholm and Paris Masters, the latter where he picked up his maiden Masters title last November by beating Djokovic in the final.
He's lost a couple of Masters 1000 finals already this season on clay courts and hasn't been firing on all cylinders in the second half of the season, largely due to injuries. He has also had to deal with a tumultuous coaching situation, but that appears to be sorted now, with longtime coach Lars Christensen returning to the fray.
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