Holger Rune was eliminated in the first round of the US Open, confirming a truly unsatisfactory year in the Slams. The Dane, clearly eliminated in New York in his debut by Brandon Nakashima with the score of 6-2 6-1 6-4, had to take yet another disappointment of the season.
Rune explained in a press conference how he was definitely not at his best physically and that the problem he has with his right knee has severely limited his service.
Rune analyzed to the Danish media sport.tv2.dk: “Of course it’s frustrating, I struggled a lot with the serve. I had problems pushing up with my right knee, and I’ve had it in the last few days in training and again here today. Of course I hoped that everything would go well, but obviously I couldn’t serve as I wanted.”
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Rune had been training in recent days with a bandage on his right knee that he then removed during the match: “I thought I was ready to play three consecutive tournaments here in the United States without my body suffering, but today my serve had problems and my knee caused me problems on my backhand as well. Brandon played very well but today he serves five times better than me. And that’s clearly what makes the difference.”
In addition, many injuries are characterizing Rune’s career, which, on the issue explained: “I have to try to think about what is causing all these injuries. Whether I’m too weak and I need to strengthen my body a little bit more. Or whether I should take a little more time off and not play tournaments all the time. I have to talk to the team about it and find a solution. It’s 100% annoying to go out in the first round. It’s frustrating, because when you’re in there, you can’t just snap your fingers and my knee will be fine. I have to try to put it aside and play with that. that I have, but the problem is that it’s difficult to play without a first serve at this level.”