Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune enjoyed a stunning season in 2019, winning a maiden Junior Grand Slam at Roland Garros and lifting silverware at the season-ending ITF Junior Finals in Chengdu. The 16-year-old intends to focus solely on professional tournaments during 2020 as he pieces together a career which he hopes will see him rise to the very top. In the first of a series of blog pieces for the ITF, Rune talks about his mindset as he makes the full-time transition from juniors to professional tennis and discusses his hopes and ambitions for the future

I have big dreams and have no hesitation in saying that I want to compete for the highest honours, win Grand Slams and be the No. 1 men’s player in the world.

The immediate goal during the next phase of my career is to work towards having success at ATP Challenger events. To do that, I need experience of winning as many matches against professional opponents as possible.  

I plan to play mainly pro tournaments during 2020 and perhaps the most important factor going forward is to see myself as a professional now and not simply a junior player contesting professional tournaments – that’s an important change in mindset.

It is always possible for a junior player to achieve a standout result at a professional tournament, but to produce steady and solid results I must accept that this is the level that I compete at and the players I come up against are the ones I need to compare myself with.

Professional players are good and have experience and this is what I am up against now. With this in mind, during the off season, I analysed every area of my body and worked to improve my speed, explosiveness around the court and endurance.

Mostly I see the challenges I will face in the coming weeks as mental tests; I must accept that I cannot play as big as I want yet and need to concentrate on playing every point solidly.

That’s one of the major differences in the transition to professional tennis. I have only played a handful of matches to far this season but, tactically, I have already learned that it is crucial to focus on every point, which wasn’t necessarily the case in juniors.

This was certainly something which I took from my match against Canada’s Vasek Pospisil at Auckland just over a week ago. To play Vasek, a player who has reached a Grand Slam quarter-final and was formerly ranked No. 25 in the world, was fantastic as it was the first time that I played against someone of his quality.

I have played practice matches with many good players but this was different. Competing against Vasek underlined where I want to be and what I need to improve upon if I am to achieve my aims.

During that match, I followed the game-plan initially but when I lost the first set 7-5 I began trying to find other ways to win points, only to realise the game-plan was the best tactic after all. It was great experience and an important learning curve.

I am not competing at the Australian Open this year and it feels very strange not to have moved on to Melbourne like many other professional players but I aim to win matches and tournaments and have a route into qualifying there next season.

I feel healthy, strong and prepared for the year ahead after a very good pre-season with the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Florida, where I did a lot of physical training and practiced with professional players.

Hitting with professional players is so important. I have never had that regular level of practice in the past given the lack of pro players living in Denmark, so I’ve had to go abroad to find it. It is crucial and I feel that I am benefitting from it.

I also came into this season on the back of a really good 2019 campaign. It was a typical season for me in many ways: started badly, became annoyed with poor results before focusing and seeing improvement.

The goal was to win a Junior Grand Slam because everyone said it was not possible for me to do so until at least 2020. But someone like Felix Auger-Aliassime showed that winning a Junior Grand Slam as a 16-year-old was achievable.

And while I narrowly missed out on finishing as the year-end No. 1, a ranking should never have greater significance than my development. Winning a Junior Grand Slam title was the main goal and it was accomplished.

Something else which I am taking into the new season is my work with Lars Robl, a mental coach. I started talking to him last year and he is a really cool guy who used to be in the Danish Special Forces.

He knows how to act in frustrating situations and understands the importance of focus in order to complete a mission. In turn, I have learnt how and when to change certain things to perform better.

It’s not as though a mental coach will make you win, but I see it very much as part of the game. It is certainly something I will continue to explore as the forthcoming weeks and months unfold – a period I am really looking forward to.