Holger also beat Jannik in Monte Carlo this year through cunning. But this time the South Tyrolean has many more weapons. Colangelo: “The forehand, the Dane’s weak point”
He pushes, presses, wants to play. It is Holger Rune, the Dane born in 2003 like Alcaraz who will face Jannik Sinner today in search of qualification for the semi-finals of the ATP Finals in Turin. The Dane had achieved his best results in the clay court season, but from Wimbledon onwards he went downhill. He is to blame for technical changes (he broke up, then got back together and finally finally left with Patrick Mouratoglou) and a back pain that tormented him until a few weeks ago. Now the worst is behind us and Rune has started working with Boris Becker, his new supercoach. A very fruitful collaboration, which allowed Holger to confirm his presence among the eight best of 2023 and earn a place in Turin.
Fabio Colangelo, technical director of Sporting Stampa of Turin and talent for Eurosport and Sky, has seen great improvements in Rune, in whose game the hand of coach Bum Bum is starting to be glimpsed: “We saw that the Dane has returned to excellent levels against Djokovic, first in Paris Bercy and then here in Turin in the first match of the Finals with the world no. 1. I noticed a few more attempts at verticalization than usual, probably also the result of Becker’s work. Rune has a proactive game , the ball that goes very fast, but on the forehand side it has a few more gaps. And that’s what Jannik could focus on. In fact, if the Dane has to run on that side, he has more difficulty than on the other side where there is a lot faster. Yet it has very high quality execution.”
JANNIK’S COUNTERMOVIES
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For Sinner it will be essential to continue serving as in the last period: “This would put Rune in great difficulty. We saw that even with Djokovic he served very well and often got out of trouble. With the serve comes easy points with angles and rotations that are annoying And if the player also responds and starts the exchange, Sinner finds himself on the other side.” In short, Jannik’s improvement in service was decisive for the leap in quality in recent weeks, and he will have to keep his percentages high against the Dane too: “Maybe a few more variations could bother Rune. But if Sinner manages to maintain the pace the frenzy he had with Djokovic, reducing the errors to a minimum, then it will be really tough for Holger.” Jannik then has the entire public on his side and has learned not to fall into the trap of provocations. In Monte Carlo, when he had the match in hand, he let the Dane take it out of his hands as he had brought the public to his side, but this time it won’t happen.
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