Paris Masters champipn Rune was branded ‘baby’ in spat before winning title

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Holger Rune is set to defend his Paris Masters title this coming week after an epic run 12 months ago that saw him stun Novak Djokovic in the final. Aged just 19, Rune pulled off an incredible feat when he beat five top-10 players in the space of five days to lift his biggest title. But his time in Paris got off to a tricky start when he argued with Stan Wawrinka during his first-round match as the three-time Major winner branded Rune a “baby”.

Rune enjoyed a stellar rise in 2022, starting the season outside of the world’s top 100 and ending it by making his top 10 debut and winning his maiden Masters title. The Dane came into last year’s Paris Masters in form off the back of winning the Stockholm Open and reaching the Swiss Indoors final.

He had a tough opening match once he got to France, coming up against former world No 3 Wawrinka, who raced to a 6-4 lead. Rune was forced to save two match points in the second set and one more in the third before taking it in a decisive tiebreak 4-6 7-5 7-6(3).

And Wawrinka didn’t seem happy with the world No 6 once the match finally reached its dramatic conclusion. “My advice to you is to stop acting like a baby on court,” the three-time Grand Slam champion told Rune as they shook hands at the net.

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The comments didn’t bother the Dane, who then went on an impressive run following his victory over Wawrinka. Rune became the first player to beat five top-10 players in a single week en route to a title outside of the ATP Finals, where only the top eight in the world get to compete.

He downed Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev to reach the quarter-final, where he led Carlos Alcaraz by a set before the world No 1 got injured and retired in the second set tiebreak. Rune then snapped Felix Auger-Aliassime’s 16-match winning streak in the semi-final to set up a showdown with Novak Djokovic in the final. He came from a set down to stun the tennis icon 3-6 6-3 7-5 and lift the trophy.

But his first-round run-in with Wawrinka wasn’t the end of the “baby” saga. Rune’s mother and agent Aneke later came out to deny suggestions that the Swiss star said anything negative about her son before it became apparent that there was definitely bad blood between them.

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“It is hard to imagine that a sportsman like Stan would have said that. Then he would come across as an uncommonly bad loser. Holger has only mentioned that he wished him well with the results of the past weeks,” Aneke Rune claimed. But Rune himself clearly remembered Wawrinka’s remarks when they met again on the court in Indian Wells earlier this year.

The 38-year-old was the winner this time, upsetting the No 7 seed 6-2 6-7(5) 7-5. And Rune referenced their Paris Masters spat after shaking hands with Wawrinka at the net. “You got nothing to say to me now?” the 20-year-old asked.

Rune had to repeat himself when Wawrinka couldn’t hear what he said. But the Swiss star wasn’t getting involved this time, asking: “What do you want me to say?” Rune will be hoping that there isn’t any drama in Paris this time around when he returns to defend his title.

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