ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 5, 2022

Holger Rune

Press Conference

H. RUNE/F. Auger-Aliassime

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Well done, Holger. Four consecutive finals. First Masters 1000 final and 12 live in the race. What is more impressive for you?

HOLGER RUNE: Everything, honestly. You know, I feel great. It was really a great match today. From the beginning till the end I was focusing on my game plan, and really, during it was trying to take every point, even though that Felix is putting a lot of pressure with his serve and first shot on the forehand. So I had to try to avoid that.

Yeah, I'm super proud on how I handled everything today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. What do you think has potentially changed with you over let's say the last month and a half? I mean, obviously there was all the talk on how good you are, et cetera, but things have really clicked in this space of time. You have got four top-10 wins in as many days.

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, good question. I just think that I try to stay very focused and composed on the court and really just focused on the game, what I have to do. Don't think too much how my opponent plays and stuff like this.

I know almost every guy on tour now how they play, so it's just about how I can potentially put the most pressure on the opponent that I play as much as possible.

That's what I have been trying to do yesterday, today, and against all the players, you know. Because I know if I put any initiative over to them, they're going to put me under pressure and probably win. So I have to be the one that's playing aggressive first.

Q. Patrick Mouratoglou said yesterday one of the things that changed the past few weeks is that you are very calm on the court. Is it something that you worked on the last few months? Because we know you could be sometimes -- I won't say a bit crazy -- but you needed to be more calm on the court. Sorry, it's not a good word, but you see what I mean. Is it something you worked on? Is it one of the reasons that explain your result the past few weeks?

HOLGER RUNE: I would say I work on it as much as I work on my serve, forehand, my backhand. You know, it's all small things that can improve all the time. It's mental, it's physical, it's tennis. It's everything.

To do 1% better every day, that's really what I'm trying to do. To improve every small thing, to try to get things better, no matter if it's warmup, a little more better every day, because it's the small things that make the big difference.

I lost to Felix last week in two sets, beat him this week in two sets. I learned a lot from last week, and trying to do a lot differently today. I'm super happy that it worked.

About the mental stuff, I would say I work on it as much as I do on the serve. It's a part of the journey. So I'm just super happy that I can keep improving everything about my tennis and my sport.

Q. You are six days older than Carlos Alcaraz. Which are the main difference between you and him on the court?

HOLGER RUNE: Good question also.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he has his advantages; I have mine. We play in a little bit of a different way. He's controlling a lot with his forehand. His game is, I think, a lot -- every time he can get a forehand he's so dangerous and hits so powerful. Where I don't mind to play over the backhand side. That's what I tried to do yesterday against him, to kind of get him stuck over there and move him to the forehand.

I think we all play differently. What is different, I don't know. I will let you guys decide that.

Q. You said that you wanted to change some little thing compared to the Basel final last week. Can you talk about that a bit, just to play aggressive or something like that?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, it was really on the return games, trying to make more returns, trying to, every time I could, get it clean. I hit the ball really clean today, so that was really a key because I could place the ball well, put him under pressure, take time away from him.

I felt the ball very good on the racquet. I could take it extremely early and I served very precise. I think everything was good. But also the mindset that I was willing to do it all the time no matter how the score went or what happened, I was just super focused playing on the game plan from the start to the end, and that's what I did.

Q. It was your first Masters 1000 semifinal. Didn't seem to affect you today. Tomorrow will be your first final. Do you expect to be a little bit more tense, or it's not something that hurts you?

HOLGER RUNE: I think a final is a final. You're always a bit more nervous when it's final because it's so close to, you know, win the tournament. Of course it can affect you, but I think it's really how you see it. If you just see it as another match, of course it's easier to say than to do it, but it's how you should do it, you know, just to see it as a match.

It's either going to be against Novak or Stef, so it's going to be super tough no matter who it's going to be. For me it's just really about playing my game because that's what can get me the closest to win tomorrow.

Q. It's now four top 10 in a row, maybe five tomorrow. When you look back at your first round, what do you think, how do you look at it?

HOLGER RUNE: Yeah, I was almost out. I was down with three match points. I actually just told my coach I was really two or three centimeters from losing in the first round here. I had a forehand which I played inside out and was like this from the net.

You know, but often it's like this. You're on the edge to lose and then you go deep in the tournament. Hopefully I can go all the way.

You know, it's just about staying in the moment. I'm super happy on how I progressed the whole tournament playing better and better, improving small things. Yeah, today was really good from my side.

Q. Do you like the attention that you get? Do you read the comments or the publicity about yourself? Does it bother you? Do you appreciate it? Does it give you more motivation? What do you feel?

HOLGER RUNE: I think it's normal. As better you do, there's more attention, there's more people are interested in you. I think it's a positive thing, honestly. It shows that I'm winning matches and beating some great guys. Obviously more people is going to talk about you when you play better. So I just think it's a very normal thing.