World No.5 Stefanos Tsitsipas always had a match-up issue with the Danish World No.18 Holger Rune as the Greek is yet to register a win against the teenager after two attempts. Tsitsipas was recently defeated in the Stockholm Open final in straight sets by a “fearless” Rune as quoted by the Greek himself.
In his recent interview with Eurosport, Tsitsipas was in full praise for the Danish teenager when he said that Rune’s fearless game style is already a Top-3 level and reminds him of his own younger days in the ATP circuit. He also predicted that Rune will be a top-10 player shortly and also accepted his match-up issues on facing the Danish.
Tsitsipas started by saying, “Rune might not be top 10 yet, but I see him there very soon. I feel like I’m against a top-three guy when I play him. I don’t see his ranking because it doesn’t match with what he’s capable of. It’s such a great challenge because he’s playing such fearless tennis. It kind of reminds me of myself when I was first on the Tour, you kind of play this tennis that you can’t play every day
He continued the assessment of the fearless attitude of the teenager that makes him such a difficult opponent to cope with, “If it’s consistent like this every single day, it’s honestly unbelievable. But I remember when I started with ATP 250s, and started getting my first wins in Qatar, the tennis I played back then compared to now was so much more free and aggressive, to the extreme I would say.
It kind of reminds me of that. It’s not easy to play against players like this, they have no sense of fear, no sense of responsibility of what they’re going to do, and that can be dangerous“
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Holger Rune – where does it go wrong for the Greek?
Stefanos Tsitsipas is already facing mental blocks while playing finals this season as he lost 2 in a row last month and is trailing 2-4 overall. Apart from the ‘final’ fear, he is facing another issue which is a so visible match-up issue with the Danish Teenager whom he will have to deal with several times in the future also.
In their latest episode in the Stockholm Open final, Rune thrashed the Greek in straight sets in just 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Rune is a fearless player who will go for his shots playing aggressive tennis from the baseline. The ball bashing by the kid seems to be too much for the Greek who is one of the very few players with a single-handed backhand. This shot was a weapon mastered by the Swiss legend- Roger Federer in his prime but the beauty of that shot was eradicated by the powerful forehands of the Mallorcan Kid – Rafael Nadal.
The Tennis world is here again re-watching the highlights of the 2000s in the form of Tsitsipas-Rune. The Greek has some homework to do before the next encounter with the Danish kid and he will have to draw inspiration from his idol – Roger Federer as he improved his backhands in the later stages of his career and reduced the head 2 head trailing Nadal.
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