“You cannot give him this time to play” – Rune rues passive approach against Draper
The Dane was outclassed by Jack Draper in the Indian Wells final, slumping to a 6-2, 6-2 defeat in the desert
Holger Rune, Indian Wells, 2025 © Zuma / Psnewz
In the Indian Wells semi-final match between Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev, the young Dane put together one of the most sophisticated performances of his career thus far.
Demonstrating his willingness to engage the Russian in his own game of attrition from the baseline, Rune frequently exhibited great patience and physical stamina to stay in extended rallies. Yet he also supplemented this with irregular but frequent flashes of variety to completely throw Medvedev off his usual metronomic rhythm.
On some occasions, Rune would inject a dramatic increase of pace into his final ball after lulling his opponent into a false sense of security through a drawn-out exchange – the like of which the Russian is most comfortable in. Other times, he would elevate the height of his ball to slow down the point and achieve the same goal, all the while frequently peppering the court with wonderfully executed drop shots.
This game plan resulted in one of the finest wins of Rune’s career as he upended the two-time finalist in hugely impressive fashion.
rune pays the price for cautious approach against draper
It was a puzzle, therefore, to see the Dane apparently revert back to caution in arguably the biggest final of his life against the increasingly dangerous Jack Draper.
Rune looked flustered throughout, standing well off the Briton’s devastating serve rather than attempting to attack it, as he failed to carve out a single break-point opportunity while losing serve four times in total across the contest.
Unsurprisingly, none of this was lost on the world No 12, who addressed his disappointment in his own game with commendable clarity and self-critique.
“You know, a player like Jack who is full of confidence, just beat Carlos yesterday, you cannot give him this time to play, and he’s going to make you move side to side and going to hit winners,” Rune told his post-match press conference following Sunday’s loss.
“For sure against Medvedev was completely different match, but I think what I thought straightaway after the match today was do you remember how I played in Paris 2022? I told myself that. And I answered to myself, yes, and that’s how I want to play,” he continued.
“That was way more committed to my tennis. You know, I think when I was stressed there, my reaction was to step more in and come more to the net and be even more aggressive. Now my reaction was, okay, I’m stressed, I’m going to fall three meters behind the baseline.”
breakthrough run in indian wells sign of bigger things to come for rune
It is well worth putting Rune’s one-sided loss in some wider context here.
Firstly, his run to the final at Indian Wells is up there with some of his greatest achievements so far. He played excellent tennis throughout the nine days in California, taking out an in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas before dispatching Medvedev so impressively.
Secondly, this run is an important breakthrough for Rune given his relative struggles across the past two years. Since stunning Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2022 Paris Masters, Rune has yet to back up those performances in the French capital with another milestone title. Yet his run to the final across the past fortnight goes a long way to rectifying this.
It is also easy to forget just how young Rune still is. His triple-title winning season of 2022 is already a long time ago, and yet the Dane is still only 21 years of age.
In short, Rune’s achievements relative to his age are already incredibly impressive. More pertinently, though, he also has plenty of time and scope for improvement.
It bodes well for Rune that he could acknowledge, even in the immediate aftermath of the sting of defeat, that he would be able to use the lessons learned from his run in Indian Wells to propel himself to even loftier heights in the future.
“I think in my mind it’s very clear what I need to practice on the next day and what I have to do better in Miami. It’s really to play way more aggressive,” he concluded.
The Miami Open is up next for Rune, followed by a clay-court stretch across which he has thrived in the past.
If he is able to regularly implement the same variety and composure he demonstrated in his victory over Medvedev, and adjust his tactics accordingly depending on his opponent, then this bright young talent’s potential to be a leading player of the future remains very much alive.
