Holger Rune makes promise to his fans after suffering early exit to American opponent at the US Open

Follow us on Google Discover

Holger Rune crashed out of the US Open in straight sets to in-form American Brandon Nakashima in his opening round match.

It’s a defeat that perfectly sums up Holger Rune’s topsy-turvy season with the Dane suffering his second consecutive first round exit at the US Open.

Rune’s coaching carousel finally seems to have stopped accepting new passengers. With this new stability, there were ambitions from the Dane, and the tennis world more generally, to see the former world number four get back to the top.

By far the favourite coming into the first round match against Brandon Nakashima, Rune never got going and failed to capitalise on six break point opportunities, eventually losing in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.

It comes as a slight surprise after Rune showed promise in Cincinnati, losing to Frances Tiafoe in the semi-finals.

‘No offence to my opponent..’ says Holger Rune after US Open defeat

It was certainly not the display many were expecting, with Rune simply never getting a hold of the match.

Whether it was the conditions, first round nerves, Rune was relatively sure it wasn’t completely all to do with the efforts from his opponent.

Clearly disappointed, he posted on X: “Big bummer yesterday. The best support, lots of happy tennis kids, perfect weather, perfect court and tournament and I played extremely bad tennis.

“No offence to my opponent, but I managed only 39% !!first serves, tons of unforced errors, this is not what I or anyone should expect. I need to look into everything now. This is not satisfying for me or my fans. I will not let you down anymore,” he said.

Luckily Rune won’t likely suffer a major rankings drop after having no points to defend in New York.

However the premature defeat marks a missed opportunity for the 21-year-old to start clambering back into the top 10.

Brandon Nakashima’s US Open win represents the career resurgence he deserves

With five American men into the top 20 for the first time since 1997, attention has largely been focussed on them, despite Nakashima having beaten the top two within the last month.

After wins against America’s Olympic bronze medalists, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, Nakashima deserves some love too, with the American weathering the drama in his Cincinnati match against Fritz.

While it marks the second straight year that Rune has suffered a first round exit at the US Open, it doesn’t actually take anything away from both Nakashima’s front-foot display and overall impressive resurgent summer. 

Having fallen from a career-best No. 43 to outside the top 150 in just six months, Nakashima’s recent turnaround has been nothing short of astonishing.