ROLAND GARROS

May 23, 2025

Holger Rune

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Holger, welcome back to Roland Garros.

HOLGER RUNE: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: How are you feeling coming in?

HOLGER RUNE: Very good. Feeling good again. It's been not ideal clay preparation for me, but happy to be here in Paris. It's a tournament that I love so much.

Definitely happy to be back and had a good practice week so far, so I'm just looking forward to start.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. When you think of yourself as a player, is it an all-court player? Do you have a favorite surface? Where does clay fit in, you being a European player?

HOLGER RUNE: What do you mean 'awkward' player.

Q. All-court.

HOLGER RUNE: Oh, all-court (smiling).

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly I feel like I can play on all surfaces. I feel like clay has been always good for me, especially when I was younger, because the game was a little bit slower, there was more time. Being a young player on the tour, it's like in the beginning there's a big physical difference. It was maybe a bit easier for me to adapt to these kind of players on clay.

Now it's really not the problem. Now I feel like I probably still feel the most comfortable on clay court. But again, I love hard court. I love grass. I haven't done great on grass, but clay, I think it's a very nice surface. It's not only about the power, it's also about the understanding of the game, how you build up the point, and also the physicality.

Q. I wanted to ask you about on-court coaching. It's been available to tennis players for a while now. Do you think it makes a difference? What do you want from your coach with it? On the WTA a few years ago, they used to have coaches coming onto the court and speak to players at change of ends. Would you want that ever?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, I think it's good that coaching is allowed because it was being done no matter what anyways (smiling).

I do believe I think it's fine that it's from the box. I don't think the coach needs to come on the court. I think that's a bit of a different dimension that I think is not necessary, honestly.

I think how it is now is fine. You can communicate with your coach and your team. I think that's totally fair. I think it's like almost any other sport, like football as well, the coach is yelling from the side and stuff, so...

Honestly, I think it's good 'cause before, maybe you did some signs with the hands here and there. Now you got a warning or something like this. It's like now it's just open for everyone. I think that's totally fair.

Q. What do you want from your coach?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, what do I want? It depends on the moment. I usually like to get simple kind of advice during the matches because you're stressed enough in the matches, so...

I think the basic stuff on big points, be brave, stick to the game plan, stuff like that. I think obviously simple stuff. When you're on the match, it's a battle. Sometimes you forget things. It's nice to have someone remind you.

Q. I remember when you were quite young, you hit with Novak early on. Did you have a relationship with him sort of throughout when you were a junior? Did he have an impact on you or was it just a one-time thing?

HOLGER RUNE: No, definitely Novak has been really, really nice to me all my career. The first time I hit with him was I think in the ATP Tour Finals. Afterwards I hit with him in Monaco when I was pretty young.

He was always really nice. He was really kind to me. He was giving me advices and stuff like that. I really appreciated that. He's obviously one of the best that we've had. It feels like a big privilege that he has been so nice. I'm sure, yeah, we'll still see him around in the big tournaments and big rounds.

Q. What was some of the advice he gave you? Does anything stick out in terms of what he told you when you were young that has stayed in your mind?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, I mean, one specific thing he told me was when we were hitting forehand cross, I think in general young players as they grow up, they get more power and they're more excited about their power.

He said him personally, he would suggest me never to go more than 70, 80% on every shot, to make sure it's, like, safe enough, but still with good quality.

I feel like sometimes you go for all or nothing. I think his game shows pretty good that he's not risking much, but at the same time he has, like, tremendous quality on his shots. That's one thing he told me.

Q. What do you think about the idea that they still have line judges here?

HOLGER RUNE: That's true.

Q. While we have at almost every tournament, every surface now, even Wimbledon, they're getting rid of line judges, relying on the electronic line calling.

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, I was a bit surprised actually when I saw it in quallies. I thought it was all tournaments now that had automatic line call.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Honestly I think it would be easier if everything was the same, like either it's all automatic or it's all line umpire. I personally think automatic line call is good 'cause it makes less discussions, less drama, and stuff like that.

At the same time I feel either we, player, read the marks wrong or there is also some fails in the system. I've had also, I remember one mark in Rome where it was like, That's ridiculous, that's impossible that you called this one in.

But again, it's like if it's here, that would definitely have been called out from an umpire. From the automatic, it's in. So it's a little bit, like, confusing. Again, we're always going to have mistakes. It's normal.

Q. At Grand Slam tournaments like here, you can end up with an 11 a.m. match or a match that starts at 11 p.m., goes to all hours. Do you have a preference for when you play?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, it's actually a good subject because that's one thing that's not good about tennis. We don't know when we play until, like, the day before. We could play in the morning, in the evening.

Again, I mentioned it before. But, like, football players, they know already in December when they're going to play in May. You can prepare much easier. We tennis players, also the change of conditions, the change of countries, surface, whatever.

I think ideally they could give us a little bit more time with that. Me personally, I prefer to play in the afternoon, get a good sleep. It's a bit early now, so...

Q. Medvedev said back in Rome that he thinks 11 a.m. starts should be abolished because it's too early. He wants to sleep basically. How tough is that? Here in quallies they start at 10, so it's even worse.

HOLGER RUNE: It's funny he says that because every time we practice back in Monaco, he always wants to practice at 9. It's funny he says that (smiling).

Yeah, I don't know. I think 11, 12 is fine to start. It's not that early. It's a bit early, but it's not like it's impossible. I mean, in juniors we started at 9 often in the morning. That's pretty tough because then you have to wake up, like, three hours before. You have to wake up at 6. It's a struggle.

Yeah, I think if I can avoid it as much as possible at 11, I'm happy.