Holger Rune stings Jannik Sinner: “I don’t know what they did to him…”

Holger Rune doesn’t tell Jannik Sinner off

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Holger Rune commented on his defeat to Jannik Sinner in the round of 16 of the Australian Open in a press conference: "I think today was a good and strange match at the same time. Definitely è good to be back to play a match against him. I am disappointed not to have gone further, but happy for the work I am doing with my team. Being back with Lars (Christensen, ed.) feels good. We are doing better results than I have achieved in previous years. It’s only been three months, but I feel like I’m playing better and better".

The Dane did not like the long stop for the medical time-out asked by the Highlander: "Today è it was a really hot day" although maybe it wasn’t sunny for a while. &It was very humid and you could feel it, è  right that it got checked, I think it took longer than I expected. È it was around ten minutes, maybe more, and it was a little bit brutal in the middle of the set. I had a good momentum at that time. They checked him on the court and then the chair judge said he needed another check to make sure everything was okay. Then he è came back just fine, so I don’t know what they did".

So he recoiled: "In the first set he played very well and in the second set he was doing well. In the first è he was better than me, in the second I was the best. In the third one until he asked for the medical time-out è it was really a battle, there were long exchanges. It was really really tough. I was almost dying, è it was a struggle and I could see that he was struggling too. Like I said today è it was hot and humid. Especially being 10/12 minutes lì out for the stop sitting on the bench I was cooking, è it was tough. I just had to move around a bit’ and I’ll have to be smarter next time or wait off the field. Anyway sì, è it was too long a break".

“Playing all matches for more than three hours is certainly not’ideal. I think what I can take away from this tournament è is trying to reach the level at which I played the second set today even earlier in the tournament. So I won’t have to play for three hours or more for all the matches and make it a little bit’ easier for me. Because Jannik, although I don t know the exact times he played, but I think he played less than me in these eight days. I think he was more fresh and that made the difference because he played at a high level and I needed the help of my legs. I had a knee problem last year, so to stop and restart in the middle of the set was difficult. Then I had a good treatment and was fine" concluded Rune.