“The level was fantastic”: Rune wins both his singles on his Davis Cup comeback

Eleven months after tearing his left Achilles, Holger Rune answered every question anybody had about him. The 23-year-old Dane returned in his country’s Davis Cup World Group I tie against Bulgaria and won both of his singles.

That is the player heading to UTS Gothenburg in December. A former world No. 4, a five-time ATP Tour champion, a Nitto ATP Finals qualifier in 2023.

On Friday Rune beat Iliyan Radulov 6-3, 6-3 in his first match since the injury, no rust, no caution, no sign of a man testing a repaired tendon.

Saturday was the real examination. Bulgaria had gone 2-1 up after Alexander Donski and Petr Nesterov edged the doubles, so Rune walked out against Grigor Dimitrov, a fellow former top-5 player, with Denmark’s tie on the line.

He lost the first set, dragged it back, then failed to serve it out at 5-4 in the third. Most players coming off 11 months out never recover from that moment. Rune won the tie-break 7-4, kept Denmark alive, and Elmer Moeller finished the job against Radulov to send his country through 3-2 and into next year’s Qualifiers.

Denmark’s captain, Frederik Løchte Nielsen, could hardly process what he had watched.

“I’m honestly completely shocked by his level,” he said, as reported by SpilXperten. “It’s one thing to put in a good performance on Friday, but to do it back-to-back is just crazy. If you didn’t know that he’d been out for 11 months, you wouldn’t have been able to tell. The level was fantastic.”

“People always talk about how the first few matches after a pre-season can be difficult, but he’s had 11 months where he couldn’t even walk properly for half of the time. The match against Dimitrov ends 7-6 in the third set, and he was really clutch. I don’t think people realise just how difficult it is to perform like that.”