Holger Rune needs to grow up
The Danish player was fortunate not to cop a bigger penalty over the incident
It’s one thing to get upset in a match, or even lash out at the umpire. However, knocking the umpire’s microphone off the chair is not acceptable. Holger Rune needs to grow up. He escaped serious punishment after a childish outburst involving a chair umpire’s microphone at the Australian Open on Thursday. The World No.8 was sent packing from the second round on a dramatic day at Melbourne Park, following a shock loss to unheralded Frenchman, Arthur Cazaux, in four sets.
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The World No.122 defeated Rune, who was the highest seed in the men’s draw to be eliminated from Melbourne Park. Despite a strong performance, the 20-year-old Dane lost 7-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 to the 21-year-old Frenchman. Rune’s frustrations boiled over in the second set during a battle of young guns.
While trailing a set and a breakpoint, Rune struck out in anger towards respected chair umpire, Marijana Veljovic. He hit a microphone attached to where the chair umpire was sitting while crossing past the official’s chair at the change of ends. Veljovic called the young Dane back to speak with him and gave him a code violation for his questionable conduct. Any form of violent action towards tennis officials is taken seriously in tennis, so Rune was fortunate that the penalty wasn’t even greater.
Rune knocked off a mic from the umpire chair, got a warning. He is down a set and a break against Cazaux. They are almost the same age but I know who the bigger child is. pic.twitter.com/MMoUb5V33O
— Del🇪🇺 threads.net/@stroppa_del (@Stroppa_Del) January 18, 2024
Has a precedent been set?
In 2022, Alexander Zverev, a German tennis star, was famously disqualified from the Mexico Open after he attacked an umpire’s chair with his racquet and verbally abused the official. Following the incident, Zverev was fined $40,000 and was later given an eight-week ban and a $25,000 fine. However, these penalties were suspended and would only be enforced if he repeated the offense.
Another high-profile disqualification occurred in 2020 at the US Open when Novak Djokovic, the World No.1, accidentally hit a female line judge with a ball after losing a point. In comparison, Rune’s incident at the Australian Open was much less severe, but he could have faced a point penalty and a fine as a result of his outburst.
Mental Focus issue?
The incident, according to commentators, demonstrated that Rune was not mentally focused during the match and therefore deserved the reprimand he received from the chair umpire. “He had it coming because he effectively hit the umpire’s chair,” Nick Lester commented.
Australian tennis legend John Fitzgerald claimed that this was evidence that the French underdog had unsettled his more favored Danish opponent. “This is always an indication to the other end that you’ve got your opponent under pressure,” Fitzgerald stated. “You can’t touch anything on the umpire’s chair, but it wasn’t too vicious. I’m sure there won’t be any real penalties for that, maybe there will be, but I doubt it. However, you have to let him know.”
Surprise Finishes
Cazaux caused a surprise by winning in four sets, setting up a third-round match against the 28th seed from the Netherlands, Tallon Griekspoor. Griekspoor defeated another French player, Arthur Fils, in the second round. On Thursday, Zverev pulled off a stunning comeback by winning a five-set marathon against Lukas Klein. Zverev was in a precarious position, just two points away from being eliminated when serving to stay in the match at 5-6 in the fifth set. But he held his nerve and managed to defeat the Slovakian qualifier 7-5 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-7).
Australian player Thanasi Kokkinakis’ hopes were dashed as he lost 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who is in excellent form. The 13th seed, who had not been beaten in 2024 after winning the Brisbane International, showed his title credentials at Melbourne Park, sending the Australian fan favorite packing.
In other action
Max Purcell, an Australian tennis player, played a tough match against the 11th seeded Casper Ruud, but unfortunately lost 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 3-6 7-6 (10-7). In the next round, Ruud will be facing the top-ranked British player, Cameron Norrie, who managed to win against Giulio Zeppieri after initially losing the first two sets 3-6 6-7 (4-7) but bouncing back to win the next three sets 6-2 6-4 6-4.
Carlos Alcaraz, a two-time grand slam champion, faced a difficult opponent in the second round in the form of Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego. However, Alcaraz managed to come out on top, winning 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
The fourth seed, Daniil Medvedev from Russia, had a challenging start to his match, as he had to wait until after 11 pm to get on court. Nevertheless, he managed to turn things around after a rough beginning, coming back from a two-set deficit and winning 3-6 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 6-0 against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori in a match that ended after 3:30 am.
Play continues today, airing at 8 pm EST on ESPN.