Alcaraz and Rune briefly diverged after the Dane endured an injury-addled summer, but both ended their 2023 seasons on positive notes with a new year ahead.
Without Novak Djokovic’s direct participation, Break Point had a chance to introduce viewers to the next generation of men’s tennis stars, and few burned brighter than Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune.
Alcaraz returned to the Netflix docuseries after Season 1 featured his triumphant two weeks at the 2022 US Open, while fans got a first look at the Danish youngster, who turned 20 last spring.
Flanked by mother Aneke and coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Rune was looking to follow up his strong finish to the 2022 season, which featured a miracle run to his first Masters 1000 title at the Rolex Paris Masters. In that unforgettable week, Rune defeated five consecutive Top 10 opponents, culminating with a match-of-the-year candidate clash with Djokovic.
But where Alcaraz was already on a Grand Slam-winning plane—ultimately capturing a second major victory at Wimbledon—Rune was largely playing catch-up to his childhood rival in 2023, suffering disappointing losses at the Australian Open and BNP Paribas Open to Andrey Rublev and Stan Wawrinka, respectively.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C14HS2YPQ_S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
(Rune reignited his feud with the latter at Indian Wells, later taking the spat to social media in a move that delighted lovers of mess the world over).
Those growing pains saw him twice split with Mouratoglou and endure an injury-fueled summer that caused him to lose eight of nine matches between July and October.
It wasn’t until he took on a pair of star coaches that things began to turn around. His partnership with Boris Becker, a six-time major champion and longtime coach to Novak Djokovic, immediately paid dividends. Rune made the semifinals in Basel and the quarterfinals in Paris, where he pushed Djokovic to three sets, and secured his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals.
After adding Roger Federer’s former coach Severin Luthi over the off-season, Rune began 2024 in fine form, reaching the Brisbane International final, where he finished runner-up to an in-form Grigor Dimitrov.
Poised to be a Top 8 seed at the Australian Open, might Rune better his fourth-round finish from 2023 and ensure the Netflix Curse stays broken?
Leave a Reply