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Former tennis player Jimmy Arias has compared Holger Rune's recent success to that of Emma Raducanu in 2021 when the young Brit won the US Open as a qualifier.
Arias is a retired tennis professional from the United States. He is currently a tennis commentator for ESPN and the Tennis Channel.
On the Inside-In podcast, Arias pointed out that Rune is an "extremely dangerous" player when in form but opined that he could also lose his form pretty quickly.
"He is a high risk, takes the ball early, reaps the return, and can take both groundstrokes pretty early," Asias said. "It is the kind of game that when it gets hot, is extremely dangerous as he proved so in four tournaments by making the finals and winning a pair of Masters. He got hot at the end of the year and he gives the feel that he can get cold."
Arias backed up his statement by describing Rune's "nice run" at Roland Garros, where he reached the quarterfinals, after which he completely lost his form. The young Dane got back to winning ways towards the end of the season, reaching four finals and winning two titles, including the Paris Masters.
"He had that nice run in Paris and then sort of didn't win a match for a while and it feels like it is his style because of which he is so aggressive that he has to be comfortable to produce it over and over again," he continued. "Obviously he is more confident now, he is winning all these matches, he is feeling great, he is feeling that perfect level of 'I want to win but I am not paralyzed by this desire to win'. He's got that perfect level going on right now, that happens when you are winning a lot."
Arias went on to state that Rune's speedy rise into the top 10 of the ATP rankings was "Raducanu-ish."
"Well, it will be interesting for me if, it might not happen at all, he might just take off from here and be a Top-5 player and consistently winning but usually it takes more time to get to the Top-10 than what he basically did it in a month. He went from a solid tour player to Top-10 in four week span, that feels "Raducanu-ish" to me but obviously not in the same level," Arias added.
"If he continues to play this way consistently over and over again then you are just great" - Jimmy Arias on Holger Rune
On the same podcast, Jimmy Arias stated that if Holger Rune could continue at his current level over a long period of time, he would become a great player.
"You can lose it at some point, now if he continues to play this way consistently over and over again then you are just great, period," he said.
Arias also expressed his opinion on the Paris Masters final between Rune and Novak Djokovic, stating that he was surprised that Djokovic didn't break the young Dane in the last game of the third set despite having multiple chances.
"Yeah surprisingly he did start to play tight in the last game, a little bit of the part I was watching he wasn't quite bold in some of his shots and I was surprised that Djokovic didn't break him. Obviously he has had his chances and didn't convert any of them," Arias said.
Arias concluded by stating that Rune "definitely believes in himself."
"As you said he is confident, he is confident and when you believe in yourself, good things happen and he definitely believes in himself," he added.
