The Danish star recognised it was a compliment to be likened to Djokovic, but did not agree with the suggestion his playing style is similar to that of the tennis legeng.
Djokovic overcame Rune 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 6-3 in a high-level round-robin match, which lasted over three hours, at the year-end championships on Sunday night.
The world No 1 now holds a 3-2 head-to-head advantage over the 20-year-old Dane, who has won a set in all five of the pair’s meetings. Djokovic also prevailed in three sets when the duo faced off in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters at the start of the month.
In a post-match interview, the 24-time Grand Slam champion had high praise for Rune’s game and revealed he sees a lot of himself in the rising star’s approach.
It’s like looking at myself in the mirror. He is so good all over the court. He has some amazing escapes at the net. He makes big serve, he makes kick serve. He is dynamic. He lives off the energy of the audience. He has everything in his game,” analysed the 36-year-old.
We all know that he has a great future ahead of him. He wants to win Slams and he is definitely one of those who has the skills to do so. Hopefully, we can have more of this kind of match.”
The world No 10, however, asserted that he did not share this view when asked if he agreed with Djokovic’s assessment in his press conference.
No. I mean, of course, I take the compliment that he’s saying we play similar. I don’t think so, but that’s my opinion. It’s good to be comparing with him. He’s one of the greatest that we ever had in the game,” explained Rune.
I think physically I felt okay. Of course, I feel it. We played three hours. But I’m sure he also felt it a little bit. I was ready, if I had the chance, from 5-3 to 5-4 to keep going, but that didn’t happen.
I think I tried to manage my energy as good as possible during the match, not use too many, like, energy, unnecessary energy, and stay calm and play the tennis that I like to play.
The Dane also discussed the quality of the match and the fact almost all of his encounters with Djokovic have been very competitive.
Yeah, was a good match. I thought we both started well on our serve. I managed to break him early. He broke me back. Was pretty even the first set,” said the 20-year-old.
I think I had chances to go up 3-0 in the second set. I didn’t do it. He managed to come back. It was a tight set. But, yeah, I managed to take the second and make it exciting. Another great battle against Novak.
Yeah, I mean, we have had great matches always when we played. Yeah, unfortunately I couldn’t do it today, but that’s how it is.
I have to look forward and take the things out of the match I was happy with, take the things out of the match that I wasn’t happy with, and go back to the practice tomorrow and try to make them better.
I thought it was a higher level match than in Paris. That I’m glad. The result was pretty similar, I would say, like in Paris. For sure, yeah, it’s great. I mean, Novak is, yeah, an amazing player.
Leave a Reply