Danish men’s singles in tennis looks to finally have emerged from decades of obscurity.
Holger Rune secured the biggest result of his burgeoning career with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Masters yesterday.
Aged just 19, Rune became the youngest winner of the ATP 1000 tournament since Boris Becker won it in 1986 aged 18.
Rune beat five top-10 players, including world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz, on his way to the triumph – an achievement not recorded at an ATP tournament since 1973 (not counting the ATP Finals, where only the top eight take part).
That run has propelled the youngster to 10th in the world rankings – the first time a Dane is in the men’s top 10 since Jan Leschly managed to rank 10th in 1967.
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Aura of Agassi
Rune’s rise to the top of tennis has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Here’s some perspective.
He’s the only player in history to go from being outside the top 100 in the previous year to entering the top 10 for the first time the following year.
Andre Agassi did it in 1998, but he had already been in the top 10 before and made the jump as part of a return to the top aged 28.
