Taylor Fritz in a twitch stream expressed his support for Holger Rune and defended his cockiness while declaring that an ambitious player can afford “some arrogance and confidence”.
Rune is among the rising tennis stars on ATP tour and the 20-year-old and his generational peers Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are tipped to replace Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the next Big Three in the tennis.
Unlike, Alcaraz and Sinner, Rune despite showing his prowess on big stage for a couple of seasons, has become a very controversial character on the men’s side of tour, having run-ins with the nicer guys like Casper Ruud and Stan Wawrinka.
Wawrinka accused Rune for being a baby on court while the Dane also had an altercation with Ruud at last year’s Roland Garros. Rune accused Ruud of shouting in his face but the Norwegian’s father has denied former’s claim and dismissed them as a “pure lie”.
Even tennis great John McEnroe highlighted Rune’s feisty behavior after the French Open debacle: “He’s got an attitude, you know, he’s cocky and I believe you need that. Be yourself. I think last year he was disrespectful to Casper [Ruud] in the quarter-finals.”
When Fritz was asked about his tour fellow’s perceived cockiness in a Twitch stream, the American responded: “I like Holger, I’ve never had any issues with Holger, we played doubles. I don’t think there’s any issues.
“I think he has big expectations and big ambitions, and I think people mistake someone saying that they want to be [a member of] the next Big Three, when you say you want to do all these great things, and people then mistake that for cockiness.
“But like, so what? I don’t think people understand, if you want to be successful, you need to actually believe it and you have to have some of that arrogance and confidence to you.”
Rune’s ATP Ranking Climb
Rune has been able to back up his on-court cocky persona and confidence with some impressive performances over the past two years as he clinched three titles last year including his Maiden ATP Masters 1000 event at the Paris Masters where he overcame Novak Djokovic in the final.
In his 2023 campaign, the Dane won the Bavarian Open while registering runner-up finishes at the Monte Carlo Masters and Italian Open. He also qualified for the year-end ATP Finals and made debut at the Turin championships and folded his season as World No. 8.
Earlier in 2023, in an interview with Tennis Majors, Rune was asked about the cocky comments directed towards him by others and he had a response: “I like Holger, I’ve never had any issues with Holger, we played doubles. I don’t think there’s any issues.
“I think he has big expectations and big ambitions, and I think people mistake someone saying that they want to be [a member of] the next Big Three, when you say you want to do all these great things, and people then mistake that for cockiness.
“But like, so what? I don’t think people understand, if you want to be successful, you need to actually believe it and you have to have some of that arrogance and confidence to you.”