Holger Rune makes Novak Djokovic admission as he calls on young stars to ‘step up’

Holger Rune has declared he and the other leading young ATP players have “got to step up”  to stop Novak Djokovic and “do everything we can to get him out of there”

The 20-year-old star has stressed that Djokovic’s rivals must beat him regularly to end his dominance and feels the great Serbian is tougher to defeat in Grand Slam matches.

Rune has earned two wins over Djokovic, having overcome the world No 1 in the final of the 2022 Paris Masters and the quarter-finals of the 2023 Italian Open.

Djokovic leads the overall head-to-head 3-2, having won the pair’s two most recent clashes – which came late in the 2023 season – in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters and the round-robin stage at the ATP Finals.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion, who turned 36 in May last year, underlined his status as the dominant force in the men’s game during a sublime 2023 season.

In 2023, Djokovic won three of the four major titles in a year for the fourth time in his career – after 2011, 2015 and 2021 – a record in men’s tennis. He was also a champion at the ATP Finals in Turin and the Masters 1000 events in Cincinnati and Paris, while he was a runner-up at Wimbledon.

Rune made a positive start to his 2024 campaign by reaching the final of the Brisbane International, where he was beaten by Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday.

The Dane, who is ranked eighth in the world following an impressive year, recently addressed the challenge of dethroning Djokovic.

“We’ve got to step up. We’ve got to do it not just one time but more regularly because I beat him this year, [Jannik] Sinner beat him, but he is still winning three out of four Grand Slams and maybe he almost won Wimbledon also,” he said in quotes reported by i News.

“So we’re not there yet. So we need to be there and do everything we can to get him out of there. Nothing is impossible but I think it’s harder [to beat Djokovic at a major]. He feels comfortable in Grand Slam, best of five sets, he has the experience of a long time.

“He knows that if he is two sets to love down he can still come back. I think more, not many players, but a few more players can meet him in best of three but in Grand Slams I would say it’s not even a handful.

“I know it’s going to take a lot of work and I’ve been doing my work in the pre-season so far, and been really, really willing to improve. I think that’s the most important, go outside my comfort zone to achieve some things that I haven’t achieved before.

“And I think that’s the way. If you stay the same, you’re never going to be different on the court. It’s about being open, I’m still young, I have a lot to learn so it’s exciting.”

Rune also highlighted the fact that he experienced cramp in a match with Djokovic, as his young rival Carlos Alcaraz did in the French Open semi-finals last year.

“I also cramped the first time I played Novak so I can relate to that. It’s not abnormal,” the 20-year-old added.

“You have massive respect and you have been watching them on TV for a very long time so it feels weird the first time to play them, to actually be on the court with them. But it’s nice because it’s like, ‘wow I’m actually getting at that level’, and then you realise that you are not on that level.

“So then you’ve got to go back to do the work and then when you finally start to beat them and start to compete with them more and more close, it feels different.”

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