Holger Rune Prepares to Perform From World No. 102

Holger Rune is training for match tennis again, 10 months after a proximal Achilles rupture left a former world No. 4 at No. 102. The Dane told Andy Roddick’s Served podcast that the work is no longer mainly rehab, and that he wants the first comeback to fall in front of a Danish crowd.

Photographs posted on 20 August show him hitting practice sets with Carlos Alcaraz in El Palmar, and he has not withdrawn from the US Open. The tendon is, in his words, fine. The week that will test it is still sitting on a live ranking of 650 points.

Saturday Night in a Stockholm Semifinal

On 18 October 2025, Rune retired at 4-6, 2-2 against Ugo Humbert in the Stockholm Open semifinal and was helped off by an ATP physio. The next day he wrote that the Achilles was fully broken proximally and that the operation was already booked for the following week.

It’s gonna be a while before I can step on court again. It’s tough. I had so much joy on court in Stockholm and it’s unbearable to think that I will not feel this energy for some time now. My Achilles is full broken on the proximal part meaning I need operation already next week and from here rehabilitation.

Holger Rune, Instagram, quoted by the Stockholm Open, 19 October 2025

Portuguese journalist José Morgado, courtside that night, wrote that Rune told the physio he had heard the tendon pop. The Stockholm Open’s injury note closed his season at 36-22 on the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, after a year whose peak was a Barcelona title over Carlos Alcaraz.

He was 22. He had already been a Paris Masters champion, the youngest there since Boris Becker in 1986, after beating Novak Djokovic in 2022. The ranking that went with that run was a career-high No. 4.

The Seven-Month Plan Did Not Survive Spring

A torn Achilles in tennis is usually a nine-to-12-month problem. Rune tried to come in under that. In an interview published by the ATP on 3 February, he said most studies on the injury look at older patients who often skip surgery, and that for athletes the operation is the way to move faster without skipping steps. A footballer who had the same tear had written to him after coming back in four and a half months.

The early medical piece went cleanly. After two weeks in a cast he was in the gym, then back on court in December, first on one leg. By winter he was hitting on two legs by February and talking about putting energy behind the ball again. He also said the quiet part: when you play every week you push too much, and this time it was too much for his body.

THE LAYOFF HE COULD NOT SHORTEN

1. 18 October 2025: Retires against Humbert in Stockholm with a proximal Achilles rupture.
2. Late October 2025: Has surgery the week after the injury, then two weeks of rest in a cast.
3. December 2025: Returns to court, first striking balls on one leg.
4. 3 February 2026: Tells ATPTour.com he is hitting on two legs and keeping the swing live to avoid a second injury from time off.
5. April 2026: Tells The Athletic he is aiming at a May return, seven months after the tear, inside the usual nine-to-12-month window.
6. 11 May 2026: The ATP Tour announces his withdrawal from Hamburg and Roland Garros.
7. June 2026: Rules himself out of Wimbledon, calling it not an easy decision, with the Achilles and a knee both described as responding well and still without a date.

That is how a seven-month target became a 10-month one. He missed Melbourne, Paris, and London. The next slam on the calendar is the one he still has not crossed off.

What Protected Ranking Does for a Player at No. 102?

ATP rankings carried by ESPN on 6 August listed Rune at No. 102 with 650 points. Tennis Tonic has him at the same spot now. He has not earned a tour point in 2026, so last year’s results have been falling off the 52-week roll. A player at 102 does not walk into the main draw of a Masters 1000 on merit.

He is eligible to ask for a protected ranking after six months out. The ATP’s own FAQ says the protected number is the player’s average ranking across the first three months after his last event, and that a layoff of six to 12 months covers the first nine tournaments he uses it for, or nine months from the first event, whichever comes first. It is for main-draw or qualifying entry. It is not for seeding, not for lucky-loser spots, and not for the ATP Finals.

That is the trap inside the good news. Protection can put him into Tokyo or Shanghai. It will not keep him out of a first-round match against someone who has been playing for 10 months. Davis Cup does not use that system at all. A captain can pick him in Hillerød on ranking 102 the same way he could pick him on ranking 4.

Practice Partners Who Take the Ball Early

Rune’s days are already built like a player’s week, not a patient’s. He has been on court with Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Müller, and Jannik Sinner, and this week’s sessions in El Palmar added Alcaraz, who is building back from a wrist problem of his own.

THE DAILY LOAD HE DESCRIBED

• Morning block: More than an hour of mobility and strength before he picks up a racket.
• On-court block: About two hours of tennis, scaled from one-set practice matches toward full three-set sessions.
• Afternoon block: Another rehab or cardio session, which he called a constant job on and off the court.
• The remaining gap: Explosiveness and footwork, the two things he still names as the slowest to come back after an Achilles tear.

The jump in quality is the point of those hitting partners. Rune said Sinner, Musetti, and Müller take the ball earlier, hit deeper, and keep him under pressure in a way a rehab partner cannot. That is useful. It is also not a fifth set in New York, and it is not a live Davis Cup rubber with a home crowd leaning on every return game. The warning that keeps attaching itself to this comeback is simple enough to state as reporting: a tendon that feels fine in practice can still be short of the first-step pop a match asks for, and the first official match should be chosen with that gap in mind.

Wilson Put a Defyer in His Hands in July

While he could not play, he changed rackets. Wilson announced in July that he had joined the company and would compete with the Defyer, after his Babolat deal ran down. In the launch coverage he said he was drawn to the frame as soon as he started playtesting, that Wilson had been supportive of the recovery, and that he could not wait to compete with it.

On Served he went further on feel: very stable, a lot of racquet-head speed, spin, and power, with more confidence on the bigger shots. A new pattern and a repaired Achilles will meet each other in the same week. That is a lot of new information for a first match, which is one more reason a home tie, with no ranking hurdle, is the cleaner laboratory than a slam first round.

When Does Holger Rune Return to Competition?

Rune has named Denmark’s World Group I meeting with Bulgaria in Hillerød on 18-20 September as the comeback he would love, then Tokyo or Beijing and the Shanghai Masters if the tendon holds. He has also left the US Open door open, and every date still depends on how the next few practice weeks feel.

The official Davis Cup site already lists the tie: Denmark hosts Bulgaria in September in World Group I, 18-20 September, at Royal Stage in Hillerød on indoor hard. On Served he said his team is looking at the Asian swing and at that home date as a possibility, that he would love to come back in front of Danish fans, and that the body is responding well. “My Achilles tendon is fine, and I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

THE AUTUMN HE IS TRAINING TOWARD

• 18-20 September: Davis Cup World Group I, Denmark vs Bulgaria, Royal Stage, Hillerød, indoor hard.
• Early October: His own site still has Tokyo or Beijing, then Shanghai as the next two tour stops, Tokyo or Beijing in week 40 as an ATP 500.
• 7-18 October: Rolex Shanghai Masters, a 1000, two weeks on hard courts after that 500.

From a first official match on 18 September to a Masters 1000 in early October is a tight first month for a player who has not contested a point since last autumn. If New York happens first, the squeeze gets tighter, because the US Open would sit almost on top of the Hillerød weekend. The Asian hard-court block is the version of the comeback that tries to build, rather than to dump a five-set slam on a tendon that has only just been asked to sprint.

The New York Entry He Refused to Kill

In the second week of August, several outlets treated the US Open as dead. Rune posted a denial the same day the Served interview was moving around, and he used the same tense he used about Hillerød: hope, not a booking.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The denial: On 11 August he wrote that conclusions about a US Open withdrawal were wrong, and that he had not withdrawn.
• The hope: The same post ended, “I hope it will be UsOpen.”
• The hitting: On 20 August he was photographed playing practice sets with Alcaraz in El Palmar.
• The other date: On Served he put the Davis Cup weekend of 18-20 September on the table as the home comeback he wants.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A New York start: An entry is not a clearance, and he has not said he will take the court there.
• The petition: Eligibility for protected ranking is clear after 10 months out; a processed, public protected number is not.
• Three-set proof: He is aiming at full three-set practice matches and has not said he has stacked them yet.

He put the denial in his own words on 11 August.

https://x.com/holgerrune2003/status/2087261709530509669

As of 21 August he still had not withdrawn, and he had just spent a session trading sets with Alcaraz.