Patrick Mouratoglou makes big Holger Rune rankings prediction as he signs up for London showdown
Super-coach Patrick Mouratoglou has predicted Holger Rune could climb to the top of the ATP rankings in the coming years, as he prepares for two major appearances to round off his season.
Danish star Rune has burst back into form after a challenging few months over the last couple of weeks and now he is preparing to play in his first ATP Tour finals in Turin.
He will open up his campaign with the ultimate test in tennis as he takes on Novak Djokovic after he pushed the world No 1 all the way in a compelling contest in last week’s Paris Masters.
Rune has also signed up to play in Mouratoglou’s Ultimate Tennis Showdown in London next month, as this exciting version of tennis comes to the UK for the first time.
Speaking exclusively to Tennis365, the former coach of Serena Williams and one of the most prominent voices in the game gave us his views on Rune, who he was coaching last year when he won the Paris Masters title after a sensational win against Djokovic in the final.
While his partnership with Rune has come to an end, Mouratoglou’s admiration for the big-hitting Dane remains and he believes he could become the best player in the world if he realises his potential.
“When he is at his best, he is playing at top five or top three in the world and he has a huge, huge potential,” Mouratoglou told Tennis365 as he promoted the Ultimate Tennis Showdown event that will be coming to London in December.
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“He is one of the three or four guys who can be No 1 in the next few years. There will have to be a lot of things fall into place for this to happen, but he can do it.
“In the last two tournaments he played, he came back to his best level. He played amazingly in Paris. He played Novak a bit early and it was close, so I think he is an incredible player.
“He also has a very strong personality that you can like or dislike and what you can say is he is certainly very interesting to watch.”
Jack Draper has also signed up for the UTS Finals in London after accepting a wildcard and Mouratoglou is also expecting big things from the Brit in 2024.
“He is back in court and hopefully he can avoid injuries now because Jack is a big talent,” he added.
“We are delighted to have him playing at the UTS Finals because he will be playing at home and will be super motivated. The crowd will be behind him.
“He has a huge game and playing indoors will help him, but he will have a problem in UTS because you only have one serve and that might take a big weapon away from him.
“It will also be great to see him relying on something else to win matches and he has that in his game.
“Jack is the future of British tennis and maybe the future of tennis as well so it’s amazing to have him play UTS.”
https://twitter.com/uts_tour_/status/1722572680434524381
WHAT IS ULTIMATE TENNIS SHOWDOWN (UTS)?
* Each match consists of four quarters of 8 minutes + the time of a hypothetical Sudden Death.
* The timer stops during the 3-minute changeover at the end of each quarter.
* The 1st player to win 3 QTS wins the match. If both players are tied at 2 QTs apiece, the 5th QT is played in a ‘“Sudden Death’” format.
* The “Sudden Death” is a dramatic cliffhanger where the first player to win two consecutive points wins the match. Every point from the second point onwards is a match point during the Sudden Death.
* There is no warm-up: Players enter the court and the match starts straight away
* During the quarter, Players serve two points each: player A serves for two points, then player B serves for two points, then player A serves for two points again, etc.
* As a major change designed to reduce down time and create more rallies, UTS players are allowed one-serve only per point : missing the serve results in losing the point.
* Finally, the “No-Let” rule during serve will be in effect.
