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Taylor Fritz has leapt to the defence of rival Holger Rune after the Danish star was criticised for his apparent ‘cockiness’. World No. 8 Rune is one of a trio of young rising tennis players who are being tipped to eventually overhaul the modern-day greats Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and Italian Jannik Sinner are the other two highly-rated youngsters but it is the temperament of Rune that has been called into question, after run-ins with Stan Wawrinka and Casper Rudd.
Swiss favourite Wawrinka accused Rune of “acting like a baby on court” following defeat to the Dane at the Paris Masters in 2022.
And during last year’s French Open Rune slammed Rudd for allegedly shouting in his face. A claim that was refuted by Rudd’s father as a “pure lie”.
But top US player Fritz, who is making his own challenge to trouble the top end of the world rankings, did not see a problem with Rune’s approach.
Speaking on a Twitch stream, Fritz said: “I like Holger, I’ve never had any issues with Holger, we played doubles. I don’t think there’s any issues.
“I think he has big expectations and big ambitions, and I think people mistake someone saying that they want to be [a member of] the next Big Three, when you say you want to do all these great things, and people then mistake that for cockiness.
“But like, so what? I don’t think people understand, if you want to be successful, you need to actually believe it and you have to have some of that arrogance and confidence to you.”
Rune showed his class to defeat Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Masters last year to land his first ATP Masters 1000 title.
When asked about his apparent cockiness during an interview with Tennis Majors earlier this year, he said: “I would not say that I am cocky. I am very down to earth. On the court I am different than outside the court.
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“I just think it is because I am so passionate in what I do. I am very competitive. But when I am off the court I’m not like this, I am not cocky.”
When it comes to training, however, any perceived arrogance will likely have been knocked out of the Dane by coach Boris Becker, who started working with Rune last month.
The legendary German helped his client to qualify for the ATP World Finals after helping him to regain his form, but in an insightful interview with Eurosport, Becker revealed that a few harsh words needed to be exchanged first.
Speaking about Rune, he said: “I have to have permission to tell him, ‘You really played crap today.’ And I’ll tell you why. Without that, I can’t work at all. He has to live with and tolerate that because it is the only way to make progress.”
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