Holger Rune’s mother Aneke provides insights into her son’s arm injury that led to his retirement from the 2024 Montpellier Open semifinal match.
Rune started the 2024 season with promise, reaching the final of the Brisbane International. However, he faced a setback, losing in the second round of the Australian Open to unseeded Arthur Cazaux in four sets.
At the Montpellier Open, Rune progressed through the rounds, defeating Pablo Llamas Ruiz and Michael Mmoh in straight sets. However, during the semifinals against Borna Coric, Rune decided to retire from the match after trailing 1-4 in the second set, citing arm pain.
Speaking on ‘The Craig Shapiro Tennis podcast’, Aneke discussed the circumstances surrounding her son’s injury. She revealed that while there wasn’t initially a plan to participate in Montpellier, they accepted a wildcard offer to gain more match practice.
“There wasn’t a plan to play in Montpellier, but then we were contacted for a wildcard. It would be a lot with three and a half weeks without any matches when you only had two matches in Melbourne.
So it makes sense to have a little more match there, also because you practiced on a lot of stuff in the preseason, and you really want to go and try all this stuff,” Aneke explained.
According to Aneke, Rune, eager to test preseason adjustments, experienced arm and elbow pain, necessitating his withdrawal.
“It’s still the beginning of the year, and you’re not supposed to peak in January or February. But he [Holger Rune] was eager to try the stuff he practiced, so we said yes to this. And unfortunately, he [Holger Rune] has had this pain in the arm and the elbow. So he had to withdraw,” she added.
While expressing some concern, Aneke emphasized that Rune’s youth, good health, and strong physique mitigate worries. She mentioned that Rune usually encounters issues due to sudden movements or technical errors.
“Normally I’m not super worried. I mean of course you’re worried,” Aneke said. “But he’s young, he’s super healthy, he has a very good body. So when there is something with Holger, it’s because he’s doing something or either he did a wrong movement and something happened all of a sudden, or it’s because he did something technically wrong.”
“So normally if you get some rest and recovery and you try to locate why is this happening? Could be in a surf movement or something, then we normally do get it quite easy,” she concluded.
