By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday November 3 2022
Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz will play the first all-teenager quarterfinal in Paris Masters history on Friday.
Photo Source: TTB
By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday, November 3, 2022
It has been a big week for youth in Paris. For the first time in Rolex Paris Masters history two teenagers will contest a quarterfinal (or semifinal or final) on Friday, as Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune (both 19) each passed their round of 16 tests with flying colors.
In a year that has been defined by Alcaraz’s sublime achievements, fellow teen Rune has been nothing short of inspiring. The Dane, who defeated Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-5 for his second consecutive Top-10 win on Thursday, has won 16 of his last 18 matches. Rune has been a certified wrecking ball of late, and he plays this week in Paris as a member of the ATP’s Top-20 for the first time (at No.18).
Rune v Alcaraz, By the Numbers
Alcaraz: 57-12 in 2022 | Rune: 36-24 in 2022
Alcaraz: 5 titles in 2022 (2 Masters, 1 Slam) | Rune: 2 titles in 2022
Rune: making his first appearance in a quarterfinal at a Masters 1000
Alcaraz v Rune, head to head: Alcaraz d. Rune at Next Gen Finals 2021, 4-3, 4-2, 4-0
Alcaraz: Turns 20 on May 5, 2023 | Rune: Turns 20 on April 29, 2023
Alcaraz continues to impress as well, two months after his double whammy in New York, where he became the youngest US Open champion since 1990 and the youngest No.1 in ATP history when the new rankings were released on the following day.
Alcaraz, the No.1 seed in Paris, eased past Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday. Despite nursing some knee pain this week, he is set up to lock up the year-end No.1 ranking – if he can claim the title in Paris.
But Rune, who trains at the Mouratoglou Academy and was once a doubles partner of Alcaraz as a junior, is undoubtedly hungry to state his case against his fellow teenager. He has come a long way in six months and he is itching to show the world.
Earlier this year Rune told Tennis Now that he is still searching for his identity. He said he watches the Big 3 and aims to take bits and pieces of each of their games.
“I’m still trying to find my identity, honestly,” he said. “Maybe it looks like it but still when you’re young obviously you have a lot of idols you have a lot of players that you look up to but I’m trying to build myself, taking the best from different players. I have a very natural return like Novak, he returns well, so I try to take the best from each player, like Roger’s approach and volleys, Rafa’s mentality and Novak’s return and just how he competes, because there’s never going to be a new Novak, Roger or Rafa so I have to create my own self, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Rune was ranked in the 80s during that conversation. Since then he’s earned two ATP titles, reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland-Garros, and won five of eight matches against the Top-10.
Clearly he’s doing a lot of things right.
He says he knows he’ll be the underdog against Alcaraz, and he seemed to relish that challenge.
All eyes will be on this marquee battle, which represents the first all-teenage tilt in the quarterfinals, semifinals or final of a Masters 1000 event since Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray met in the semifinals at the Miami Open in 2007.
“We’re both 19 so we’re super young, we have a very long time left in our careers,” Rune told Tennis Majors in Paris. “It’s great to see. We’ve been following each other since junior time. What he’s doing is incredible, I’m super excited to see how it’s going to be. I’ll just go out there and have fun.
“He’s world No 1 right now, I guess I’m the underdog… I’m just going to go out there and play free, I have nothing to lose.”
Alcaraz, now 56-12 on the season after his routine shellacking of Dimitrov, knows he’ll have his hands full with Rune. Like his mentor Rafael Nadal, he is not foolish enough to take any of his opponents for granted.
He may be No.1, but he’s not letting it get to his head.
“It's just a ranking,” he said of his alpha dog status on tour on Thursday evening in Paris. “Obviously it doesn't mean that you're gonna win every match, every tournament. You know, every player can beat you. I see it like that, right now.
“I just feel I can lose every match, and that's the most important thing. You have to play your best match in every match or at least you have to try to play the best level in every match. That's what I see in that moment right now.”