After easing past a below-par Holger Rune in straight sets, Djokovic used his on-court interview to vent his displeasure at fans whose expressions of support for the Danish 15th seed he mistakenly took for jeers. The 37-year-old misheard cries of “Ruuune” as boos. 

Despite assurances to the contrary from the chair umpire, Nico Helwerth, and later an attempt to defuse the situation by his interviewer, the BBC’s Rishi Persad, Djokovic insisted Rune’s supporters had used the chants to conceal their derision. 

“To all the fans that have respect and have stayed here tonight, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate it,” said Djokovic following his 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win. “And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player, in this case me, have a goooooood night. Goooooood night. Goooooood night.”

Djokovic shot down Persad’s suggestion that the supposed offenders were voicing support for Rune, rather than expressing disrespect for the Serbian second seed. 

“They were, they were, they were,” said Djokovic, shaking his head. “I don’t accept it. No. I know they were cheering for Rune, but that’s an excuse to also boo. Listen, I’ve been on the tour for more than 20 years, so trust me, I know all the tricks, I know how it works. 

“It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s OK. I focus on the respectful people that pay the ticket to come and watch tonight, and love tennis and appreciate the players, and the effort that the players put in. I played in much more hostile environments, trust me. You guys can’t touch me.”

It was an unexpectedly spicy conclusion to a contest that was, in truth, something of a damp squib. Having previously beaten Djokovic on hard courts and clay, Rune will have drawn encouragement from the former champion’s struggles against Jacob Fearnley and Alexei Popyrin, both of whom pushed him to four sets. But Rune’s hopes of completing a surface trifecta effectively evaporated within seven minutes, the time it took for the Serb to pocket the first 12 points of the match and establish an unassailable first-set lead. 

From there, the 21-year-old was always playing catch-up. Broken again in the seventh game of the second set, Rune fended off six set points at 5-3 to stay in contention, sealing the game with an ace. It was during that miniature tug-of-war that Djokovic began to take issue with the chants for his opponent. Having made his feelings known to Helwerth at the changeover, he was soon eyeballing his perceived tormentors as he saved a break point to serve out for a two-set lead. 

From there, a couple of late slips posed the most meaningful threat to Djokovic’s progress, but the knee on which he had surgery barely a month ago survived the tests unscathed. He will now face Alex De Minaur, the Australian ninth seed, who defeated Arthur Fils of France 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight for the first time. 

“I think Holger didn’t really play at his expected level,” said Djokovic. “But I think I also made him uncomfortable on the court in terms of being very solid from the baseline and serving well in important moments. There were a couple of games – when I was serving for the second set, [and in] the third set [at] 3-2 up – where I saved some break points, where he had chances to shift the momentum to his side. But I think I played some good points.”

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The pity of it is that the partnership appeared to be working so well. When Becker joined Rune’s team on a trial basis last October, the impact was immediate. Almost overnight, the 20-year-old’s post-Wimbledon slump of eight defeats in nine matches was arrested, his form and confidence surging back as deep runs in Basel and Paris secured a maiden appearance at the ATP Finals. It was a reminder of the wealth of expertise – “more mental and tactical than technical,” Rune explained – that Becker brings to the table.

The German’s influence was plain but, before long, so too were the competing “professional and private responsibilities” to which he alluded on taking his leave. The conflict was starkly illustrated during the Australian Open, where Rune slumped to a shock second-round exit against Arthur Cazaux as Becker offered commentary on the match from a Eurosport studio in Munich. 

Given Becker’s media commitments and the travel restrictions resulting from his conviction for tax evasion in 2022, it was clear from the outset that the former world No 1 would be unable to accompany Rune to every major tournament. All parties will have been alive to that reality when the decision was taken last November to extend Becker’s tenure as head coach, and perhaps it had some bearing on the subsequent recruitment of Lüthi, Roger Federer’s former coach, and Kenneth Carlsen, the former Danish No 1, both of whom accompanied Rune in Melbourne. 

Either way, the fact that those appointments were made complicates Becker’s suggestion that he underestimated the scope of the job. They created the impression of a player surrounding himself with an experienced and highly accomplished team capable of dealing with any eventuality, not least any shortfall in availability. But while Rune appeared determined to leave no stone unturned in his quest to keep pace with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, maintaining his position among the trio of twentysomethings tipped to inherit the mantle of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Becker stressed in his departure announcement that his initial focus was more immediate.  

“We started this partnership with the initial goal to reach the ATP Finals end of last year but moving forward I realised that in order for this to be successful, I would need to be available for Holger much more than I can,” Becker wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Due to professional and private responsibilities, I can’t give Holger what he needs now. I wish him only the very best and I’m always going to be his No 1 fan.”

Becker’s evident warmth towards his former charge is understandable, given the faith Rune showed in him at a difficult juncture in his life. What is harder to fathom is why the scale of the commitment should only have dawned on Becker so belatedly. It is not as though the German, himself a six-time grand slam champion and former world No 1, suddenly found himself adrift in unfamiliar waters. Having guided Djokovic to six major titles in three years following his appointment as the Serb’s coach in 2013, Becker’s appreciation of what it takes to mentor a top player with grand slam aspirations is second to none. 

That the German’s exit is a mirror image of Lüthi’s – sudden, amicable, attributed to time constraints – only adds to the curiousness of the situation. Rune’s mother, Aneke, has claimed “it would be too few weeks for Severin to be able to cover for the continuity that Holger needs” and, while she welcomed efforts by Lüthi to alter Rune’s routine in principle, she has questioned both the decision to introduce those changes during the Australian Open and an alleged delay in the Swiss’s availability to see the process through.

“If you come in and you want to implement a lot of changes in the routines that the player normally does, this is great,” Aneke told the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast. “Because if you’re No 7, you’re not the best in the world, so you need to do things differently in order to improve. 

“What is tough is starting to do the things at a grand slam. If we look back, it was not the right timing to implement new stuff, because the player is obviously more nervous at grand slams. Also, what really was not a good fit was the next time we were supposed to see Severin – I didn’t have the schedule before Melbourne – was at the end of March. 

“To follow up on the changes that you want to do, and not see the player for two months – maybe if you were 25 or 27, this would work. But if you’re 20, you need continuously to repeat the things you want to do.”

Fair enough, but Rune is no ordinary 20-year-old, and one wonders why, in Lüthi’s absence, a player possessed of the Dane’s work ethic could not have embarked on that process of repetition in tandem with Carlsen. Rune is clearly a man in a hurry but, as illustrated by the process of incremental evolution that has made a grand slam champion of Sinner, change takes time – a commodity apparently in short supply in Team Rune. 

Following his exit, Lüthi told the Swiss newspaper Blick that the partnership was “anything but a quick fix”. But was there a reluctance to buy into his methods over the long haul? Securing Lüthi’s services was something of a coup, given his long and storied history with Federer, and Aneke has admitted she and Rune were initially “a little starstruck” by the Swiss. Yet there was an undercurrent of scepticism in her appraisal of Lüthi’s desire to channel her son’s exuberant on-court persona.

“Holger is super energetic, he’s explosive in his tennis,” said Aneke. “He likes to play this way, he’s a passionate player, and for sure there are things where you should say, ‘Here you have to control or save your energy a little.’ 

“But you cannot take out the energy of Holger. You lose the explosiveness, you lose the net game, you lose a lot of things that are part Holger’s identity. So it’s really a fine balance in where it’s the ice, where it’s the fire.” 

Given the evident strength of feeling within Rune’s core team about what does and doesn’t work for him, it seems highly questionable that a brains trust of super coaches is what he needs at this stage in his career. Ultimately, the instability within Rune’s coaching set-up is rooted in his split with Lars Christensen, the Dane who mentored him from the age of six but left the team last year following a fractious collaboration with Patrick Mouratoglou. As was evident in a statement released this week through IMG – with whom Rune has signed after Aneke stepped down as his press manager – Rune craves a return to the comfort of the familiar. 

“After working with the same coach for 15 years, my entire tennis life, it is not easy to find the perfect match on the first try,” Rune wrote. “I have big ambitions and big goals, and I need people around me who have the same visions and who I can trust to achieve my goals. 

“I need people who know me – who can be there all the time.”

If those are the criteria, renaissance rather than revolution would seem to be the order of the day. Christensen is currently working with another Dane, Clara Tauson, but Rune retains a warm regard for Mouratoglou, and the feeling is mutual. Carlsen, meanwhile, has known Rune since he was eight years old.

Whatever path the Dane chooses next, stability behind the scenes will be key if he is to remain in the slipstream of Sinner and Alcaraz. Set to appear alongside the pair at October’s 6 Kings Slam, a lucrative exhibition event in Riyadh that will also feature Djokovic, Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, Rune is currently the only player in the field not to have won a major. For that to change, the focus must return to process rather than personnel.

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Taken the distance by Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in his final group match at the ATP Finals, Djokovic’s hopes of advancing to the semi-finals rested on Jannik Sinner, the very man who had left him in a parlous position in the first place. Sinner’s landmark first win over Djokovic on Tuesday night meant that if the 22-year-old Italian defeated Holger Rune in the day’s second singles match, he would be confirmed as the winner of Green Group, in turn ushering Djokovic through to the semi-finals in second place. A win for Rune, meanwhile, would see the Dane progress at Djokovic’s expense. 

Guaranteed to advance either way, just how much would Sinner give in pursuit of a victory that would potentially give the world No 1 a chance to avenge his first defeat since the Wimbledon final? Even Djokovic seemed unsure.

“What kind of battle do I expect tonight?” mused the Serb following his 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-1 win over Hurkacz. “I don’t know. I don’t know what Jannik is thinking about. 

“Obviously, knowing he has qualified even before he enters the court, I think it’s a big relief. Knowing him, he’s going to try to win every match that he plays. He’s playing great.”

On a day when an uncharacteristic mid-match lull saw him drop 13 points in a row to Hurkacz, Djokovic’s analysis proved more reliable than his game. In a contest that even Sinner, a man not given to hyperbole, described as “a little bit of a rollercoaster”, the fourth seed gave everything. Sinner came out swinging freely to take the first set, struggled with a back injury in the face of a strong fightback from Rune in the second, and then rose to the challenge magnificently down the stretch, pulling off a brilliant drop volley to break in the penultimate game before serving out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory. 

“It was important for me to reset after this good win against Novak, starting from zero again, being ready for a tough fight against Holger,” said Sinner, who had drawn a blank in his previous two meetings with Rune. “I never won against him. It’s nice that I won at least once against him.

“He’s an incredible player, serving really good. I started off really well. From the second set, he served better. It was obviously much, much tougher to break him. I think it was a good win, positive win.”

Any fears Sinner might leave something in reserve were allayed from the moment he conjured a winning pass to break in the opening game. Rarely can the first three minutes of a tennis match have stirred greater emotion. Sinner has enjoyed rollicking support from the home crowd this week, and as the locals rose to acclaim their hero, and the now-familiar chants of “Ole, ole, ole, Sin-ner, Sin-ner” cascaded down from the stands, the die was cast. With the better part of 12,000 souls hanging on his every stroke, only victory would do for the Italian. Sinner could not have given less than 100% even if he had wanted to. 

In truth, there was never any danger of a tactical surrender. A model professional, Sinner has worked tirelessly to expand his repertoire, and the fruits of his labours were once again evident. Immaculate off the ground, as he almost invariably is, Sinner also enjoyed an 84% success rate behind his vastly improved first serve and won 20 of 23 net points. His progress in those two key areas, combined with his lithe, powerful movement and the quality of his return game, has lifted the Italian to a new level. 

As he shrugged off a sore back – and saved a break point that would have left Rune serving for the match – Sinner’s dogged determination to sustain the momentum he has established since the US Open was plain. 

“One motion I made, I felt a little, little click,” he said following his ninth straight win. “It went away. It’s all good with my body.”

Ironically, if anyone failed to turn up, it was Rune. That was certainly the case in the opening set, where the Dane fell well below the standards he has set since hiring Boris Becker as his coach last month. Yet the Dane recovered impressively, seizing the chance to level the match when Sinner’s physical problems began to bite, and he competed ferociously in the decider. 

“I’ve always lost the first set when I played Jannik,” said Rune. “I was not so stressed about it, because I know I can fight back. But obviously he played very free. This match, he had absolutely nothing to lose. That probably put down his nerves a little bit.”

Rune showed remarkable composure to stay in the hunt after Aurélie Tourte, the French chair umpire, harshly declined to grant him a challenge early in the final set, handing Sinner a break point. Television replays showed Rune’s serve had landed long, but Sinner returned it crosscourt and Rune, who instinctively tracked the ball, challenged only after netting a half-hearted response. Tourte ruled that, having missed the shot, no appeal could be allowed.

A protracted debate proved fruitless for Rune, who was barracked by the crowd and responded with a sarcastic thumbs up, à la Djokovic. In the end, it didn’t matter: the 20-year-old saved the break point with one ace, and went on to hold with another. 

Djokovic would have approved. He doubtless approved of the final outcome, too.

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He likes a record, does Djokovic, and the 36-year-old will be fully aware that a seventh title at the season-ending championships would take him clear of Roger Federer as the most successful player in the history of the elite eight-man event. Why make do with one milestone when two are there for the taking?

Nonetheless, as Djokovic clinched a hard-earned 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (1-7), 6-3 victory over Holger Rune, crouching low with his head bowed towards the court, any scepticism about his chief ambition in northern Italy was banished. It was clear what the win meant to the Serb, who will become the first man in history to hold the top ranking for more than 400 weeks after the tournament.

To put the enormity of that accomplishment into perspective, the only other man to surpass 300 weeks at No 1 is Federer. Third on the all-time list is Pete Sampras, who reigned for a total of 286 weeks and finished the year on the top of the rankings six times, a record that has now been comfortably eclipsed by Djokovic. Increasingly, even the greatest champions are receding in the Serb’s rear-view mirror. 

“It’s huge,” Djokovic acknowledged after prevailing, shortly after midnight, in a shade over three hours.

“It means a lot, obviously. I knew coming into the tournament here I needed only one win to clinch the year-end No 1. I really wanted that to happen already tonight. I didn’t want to prolong the situation and complicate this particular goal. I’m really glad that I managed to do that.  

“It always has been a huge objective and huge goal of mine to be No 1 in the world. Other than grand slams, that’s what counts the most. To finish off the year as No 1 in the world at this stage of my life and career is something really amazing.

“Anything that happens from this moment onwards in this tournament is a bonus for me.”

If Djokovic is as serene as that statement would suggest – and at this stage, we probably ought to take him at his word – it is likely to spell bad news for the rest of the field. In defeating Rune for the second time in 10 days, the Serb earned his 14th top-10 win of the season, equalling a statistical landmark set by Federer for a player over the age of 35. As he has shown time and again, Djokovic knows better than anyone what it takes to win at this level, and once again he was able to eclipse the hunger and vitality of a significantly younger man.

This was nonetheless a much closer battle than their quarter-final meeting at the Paris Masters, Rune’s quality and determination ensuring Djokovic was unable to capitalise on his opportunities with the same ruthless efficiency he exhibited in Bercy. Having sealed a tight first set with a thunderbolt forehand return, the 24-time grand slam champion not only suffered the rare indignity of losing a “really terrible” second-set tiebreak, but also crushed a pair of rackets underfoot after Rune recovered from a break down early in the decider. In five meetings, the Danish world No 10 has never failed to take a set against Djokovic, for whom this was a victory rooted in resilience and resourcefulness.

“We have had great matches always when we played,” said Rune, who is ending the year strongly after a post-Wimbledon slump. “Unfortunately I couldn’t do it today, but that’s how it is. I have to look forward and take the things out of the match I was happy with, take the things out of the match that I wasn’t happy with, and go back to the practice [court] and try to make them better.”

The sternest challenge to Djokovic in Green Group may yet come from Jannik Sinner, the Italian world No 4, who earlier delighted his adoring public with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. One break in each set was enough for the 22-year-old, who sealed victory with his ninth ace of an evening on which he did not face a single break point. “The crowd support was crazy,” said Sinner, who revelled in an atmosphere that he likened to a football stadium. 

“I knew a little bit what to expect before the match because of two years ago when I entered in the court,” said Sinner, who qualified by right this year after filling in for the injured Matteo Berrettini as first alternate in 2021. “But I felt like today was a little bit different.  

“My baggage of experience and how I am as a player in [the] two years [since], some things have changed, so the mindset is a little bit different. I think generally the crowd today was really, really nice. They were pushing me, not only when I won the point but also when I lost the point. The ability to handle this kind of thing, not playing only for me but also for the fans and everything, I think it’s a great balance.”

For Tsitsipas, it was a sobering start to an event where he was crowned champion four years ago. The Greek afterwards denied rumours that he has been struggling with injury.

“I’m healthy,” said Tsitsipas. “I’m ready to compete.”With Djokovic awaiting in his final group match on Thursday, ahead of a Tuesday night meeting with Sinner, he will need to be.

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“We were in uncharted territory now,” she intones in a voiceover, “making up history as we went along.”

Much the same may be said of Novak Djokovic, a man whose limb-contorting defensive play has often been likened to the film’s villainous T-1000 cyborg, a shape-shifting android capable of dissolving into liquid metal before reconstituting itself. For Djokovic, there is nothing novel in the idea of making up history on the hoof. On the contrary, it is part of his routine – one he hopes to continue at the ATP Finals in Turin.

Where Djokovic goes, records invariably follow. At last year’s ATP Finals, the Serbian strongman equalled Roger Federer’s landmark haul of six titles, becoming the oldest champion in the event’s history. Should he prevail again this time, Djokovic will not only pull clear of the retired Swiss to claim the record outright, but also put the gloss on an unprecedented eighth year-end No 1 ranking, a distinction that will be guaranteed if he overcomes Holger Rune in his opener on Sunday night. That victory would in turn ensure that the 36-year-old goes on to become the first man ever to hold the top ranking for more than 400 weeks. 

Nor does it end there. Should Djokovic qualify for next year’s finals, he would equal another milestone, matching Federer’s record of 17 appearances at the season-ending championships. By that time, he may well have added another notch or four to his tally of grand slam titles, which currently stands level with Margaret Court at 24, and expanded his record total of 40 Masters 1000 titles, the most recent of which came last week in Paris. 

Even after a season in which he fell just one win short of a calendar grand slam for the second time in three years, Djokovic is determined to keep cutting a swathe through the record books. What drives his relentless ambition?

“I love competing, I love the sport,” said the 36-year-old. “That’s my greatest motivation really, because I’ve made a lot of records, I’ve broken a lot of records and it’s great. Even if I leave professional tennis now and reflect on everything I’ve done, I can be extremely satisfied. 

“So I don’t have pressure to keep on competing, but I still have desire and still have the level. I’m playing at a very high level, so records are there obviously as a huge inspiration as well, no doubt, and history of the sport. I still want to create my own history and history of tennis and see how far I can go.”

With milestones falling like dominoes, can anyone stop the world No 1 in Turin? Rune, the Danish world No 10, has won two of his four meetings with Djokovic and pushed the top seed to a decider in Paris last week. Yet, for all the encouraging signs of resurgence from the 20-year-old following the recruitment of Boris Becker as his coach, it remains to be seen whether a maiden appearance at the season finale will bring a return to the form that carried him to the French Open and Wimbledon quarter-finals. The comedown from those summer highs was steep, Rune suffering seven defeats in eight matches before he finally stopped the rot with a semi-final run in Basel last month. Qualification for Turin ultimately became an end in its own right for the Dane and, after edging out Hubert Hurkacz by just 215 points in the race for eighth spot, it is asking a lot to regroup and go again at this late stage in the season.

“It’s been a big goal for me,” said Rune of clinching his place in Turin. “Being in the season and in the moment, you don’t think so much about it, but as we got closer and the race was very close for me with other players, it was a goal that I really wanted to achieve. I wanted it badly and I got it, so I’m very happy and satisfied with that.”

Green Group is completed by Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose debut victory in London four years ago remains his most notable title to date, and Jannik Sinner, the home favourite, who has qualified by right for the first time after replacing his injured compatriot Matteo Berrettini with two group matches remaining in 2021. Sinner has yet to register a win against Djokovic, while Tsitsipas has beaten the Serb just twice in 13 matches. The pair will open proceedings on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m coming in with a very positive mindset here,” said Sinner, who reached a first grand slam semi-final this summer at Wimbledon and is up to a career-high ranking of fourth after title wins in Beijing and Vienna last month. 

“I’ve had a great year. The last part of the season I played really well, especially the indoor tournaments, and I’m happy to be here. I will try to take a lot of positive energy with the crowd and everything. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I also have to enjoy this moment. I know what I’m capable of, obviously.”

Few have a better insight those capabilities than Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish second seed and Red Group favourite, who may be quietly relieved to find himself at arm’s length from a player who has won on four of the seven occasions they have met. 

For all the brilliance of a season that has brought six titles, including a first Wimbledon crown, Alcaraz has ample food for thought ahead of his maiden appearance at an event he missed last season with an abdominal tear. The 20-year-old’s hopes of challenging Djokovic for the year-end No 1 ranking were dashed last month by a combination of the back and foot injuries that forced him to withdraw from Basel, and a shock early exit to Roman Safiullin, a Russian ranked 39 in the world, at the Paris Masters. As ever, Alcaraz has been quick to find a silver lining. 

“The defeat in Paris, which was quite painful, made me realise that I have to work harder,” said the Spaniard, who has not won a tournament since Wimbledon. “That’s what I’ve done. You always have to look for the positive in things. I’ve had several days to train to come here in optimum form. I’ve worked hard, on both fitness and tennis. I feel really good.” 

Alcaraz will need to translate those good feelings into good tennis from the get-go if he is to build the momentum he will need to stop Djokovic. He has already contested a pair of epic finals against the Serb this year, first at Wimbledon and then in Cincinnati, and few would say no to a fifth instalment of a rivalry that currently stands all square at two apiece. 

First, though, Alcaraz will need to find a way past two former champions in Daniil Medvedev, his US Open conqueror, and Germany’s Alexander Zverev, whom he will face in his opening match on Monday. Also lying in wait is Andrey Rublev, the Russian world No 5, with whom Alcaraz has never previously crossed swords. Navigating a path out of the group will be far from easy, but the Murcian insists he is ready.

“I’m expecting the Carlos from early this year, despite the results I’ve had in recent tournaments,” said the Spaniard.

Alcaraz is certainly likely to need that version of himself against Medvedev, who will be eager to erase the memory of last year, when he lost each of his three group matches in a final-set tiebreak. The smart money suggests the Russian world No 3 will succeed: few know the course and distance better than Medvedev, who was crowned champion in 2020 and lost the following year’s final to Zverev. Like Alcaraz, the 27-year-old promises to be ready.   

“From the first match, you play against a top 10 player, which never happens on tour other than here,” said Medvedev. “You have to play your best from the first match if you want to try to win the whole thing.”

Nobody does that quite like Djokovic, however, and Alcaraz, Sinner and company will be all too aware that the six-time champion remains the man to beat.   

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Consigned to the boondocks of Court 5 for his first-round match against Roberto Carballes Baena, a 30-year-old Spaniard ranked 63 in the world, Rune made little attempt to disguise his displeasure. “In case you can[’t] find Court 5, this is where I play my first match Monday,” the Danish fourth seed wrote pointedly on social media at the weekend, alongside a map of the grounds. 

In the event, Rune will have been grateful that the latest lowlight of a wretched, injury-hit summer was not given a bigger stage. Struggling with his game and his body, the 20-year-old tumbled to a chastening 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat as Carballes Baena claimed the first top-10 win of his career. 

It was the Spaniard’s second victory in three meetings with Rune, Carballes Baena having won in straight sets on the clay courts of Cordoba last year, and the Dane was quick to acknowledge the quality of his opponent, refusing to blame his show-court exile for the defeat even as he elaborated on his bafflement at the decision. 

“It’s not difficult, but it’s different,” said Rune. “You’re more close to all the people. It’s a nice atmosphere. So it’s no problem with the court. I just didn’t expect to play on that court.

“[The better] you get in the ranking, the more benefits you should get with playing in better conditions. I think that’s normal way, and it’s also how the ATP do [things] with all the players. But they didn’t do it with me here.  

“That’s obviously disappointing, but [I’m] not going to blame the court [for] the loss. He played very, very solid. Credit to him.

“I played probably more matches on outside courts in my life than big courts, so all good.”

Be that as it may, the controversy was clearly a distraction to Rune, who agreed with the suggestion of Peter Bastiansen, a former ATP player turned Danish TV pundit, that the scheduling showed a “lack of respect”. It was not the only distraction he would encounter. Court 5 is situated in the middle of a bank of three courts on the west side of Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the attendant plethora of sights, sounds and smells provides ample opportunity for the focus to wander. 

Amid the hustle and bustle, Rune certainly looked as though his mind was elsewhere, occasionally labouring physically and racking up an uncharacteristic 43 unforced errors. A dozen of those came in the first set, where the Dane was broken in the fifth game. More alarming for Rune than the score-line, however, was Carballes Baena’s ability to grasp the nettle in the baseline exchanges. Only in the second set, where the Spaniard’s level dropped, was Rune able to make his signature counter-punching tell. Eleven of Carballes Baena’s 21 unforced errors came in that passage of play, but his resilience was formidable down the stretch, where his error-count dropped to zero.

The past two months have been difficult for Rune. Since a successful grass-court season that brought a first semi-final at Queen’s Club and a maiden Wimbledon quarter-final, the Dane has struggled with a back injury. Beaten by Marcos Giron in his opening match in Toronto, Rune was forced to retire at a set and a break down against Mackenzie McDonald in Cincinnati. Rune’s limited activity and physical difficulties – he received treatment here for a problem with his left knee – have clearly left him well short of his usual sharpness. 

“It’s not ideal that I didn’t get more matches coming into this tournament, because the body, it’s hard if you’re not in the rhythm,” said Rune. 

It’s also hard if you’re focusing on scheduling decisions over which you have no control, and Rune would do well to take a leaf out of Caroline Wozniacki’s book. Six years ago, his compatriot was also assigned to Court 5 in the opening round only for the weather to intervene, resulting in the match being moved to Court 17. Importantly, though, Wozniacki kept her counsel until after the contest, only taking aim at the original decision following a three-set loss to Ekaterina Makarova. Moral of the story? Play first, complain later.

There were no such problems for the returning Wozniacki this time around, the former world No 1 sweeping past Tatiana Prozorova 6-3, 6-2 to set up an intriguing second-round meeting with Petra Kvitova, the 11th seed and former Wimbledon champion.

Maria Sakkari, seeded eighth, was another early casualty, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Rebeka Masarova, the Spanish world No 71. It was the Greek eighth seed’s third successive defeat in the opening round of a slam, and she cut a distraught figure afterwards, suggesting she may take a period away from the game.

“I just feel like my level was, and has been, poor, and I have to do something about it,” said Sakkari. “It’s very uncertain now, I don’t know what I’m going to do, whether I’ll take a break or not.”

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Fifteen years ago, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal arrived at Flushing Meadows facing much the same expectations that now confront Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. They had just contested one of the greatest Wimbledon finals in history, Nadal edging a rain-interrupted cliff-hanger in four hours and 48 minutes to claim his first title on Centre Court, deny Federer a record-equalling sixth consecutive triumph, and depose the Swiss as world No 1. 

It was, famously, a match of almost unbearable tension and drama, Federer saving two match points in a classic fourth-set tiebreak before pushing his Spanish rival all the way in a nip-and-tuck decider that ended in near darkness. Naturally enough, the world wanted more, and a renewal of hostilities at the US Open was feverishly anticipated. The one man who didn’t share that enthusiasm for a rematch was Andy Murray, who shredded the script with a four-set semi-final win over Nadal.

For those who see this year’s US Open as a two-horse race, it is a salutary tale, a reminder that in sport no conclusion is foregone, no bet safe – least of all at the season’s final major, where bodies and minds are at their most weary after the relentless grind of a grand slam summer. Federer and Nadal, respectively aged 22 and 27 at the time, never did meet in New York, and it is far from guaranteed that Alcaraz and Djokovic, with 16 years between them, will not go the same route, however much we may wish otherwise.

It’s not as though we haven’t been thoroughly spoilt already. Three of the four meetings between Alcaraz, the top seed and defending champion, and Djokovic, a 23-time major winner and all-time great, have come in the past three months. Each match has offered a feast of extraordinary shot-making, incredible physical and mental intensity, and gripping theatre. 

When Alcaraz prevailed in a classic Wimbledon final that bore some notable echoes of 2008, the Spaniard ending a long spell of Centre Court domination by the reigning champion in a near-identical four hours and 42 minutes, it was impossible to imagine the contest would be trumped just five weeks later. Yet the remarkable duel between Djokovic and Alcaraz in Cincinnati, where the Serb likened his 5-7, 7-6, 7-6 victory to winning a grand slam, did just that.

“He’s always pushing me to the limit,” said Djokovic after recovering from match point down to win what was, at 11 minutes shy of four hours, the longest three-set final in ATP Tour history. 

“I think I do to him pretty much the same thing. That’s why we produced a memorable final. It was one of the best, most exciting, and most difficult finals I was ever part of in best-of-three, no doubt, throughout my career.  

“That’s why I fell on the ground after I won the match, because it felt like winning a grand slam, to be honest. The amount of exchanges and rallies. It was physically so demanding and gruelling that I felt very exhausted for the next few days. Those are the moments in matches that I still push myself [for] on a daily basis for, day in and day out, practice, sacrifice, commitment.”

Given the wild improbability of Djokovic and Alcaraz staging two such remarkable battles in such close proximity – and lest we forget, their semi-final meeting in Paris was also shaping up nicely before Alcaraz, overwhelmed by nervous tension, succumbed to cramp – it feels almost greedy to expect a third. But who might make like Murray in 2008 and flip the script? 

In Alcaraz’s half, the man most likely is perhaps Jannik Sinner, who came within a point of upending the eventual champion in a quarter-final classic last year. The Italian has been one of the few players able to trouble Alcaraz on a consistent basis, a point he underlined earlier this year when he defeated the Spaniard in the semi-finals of the Miami Open to avenge a defeat in Indian Wells. Up to a career-high ranking of sixth after winning a maiden Masters 1000 title in Toronto, the 22-year-old will be eager to continue on the upward trajectory that propelled him to a first major semi-final at Wimbledon.

Nor should the claims of Daniil Medvedev, the third seed and champion two years ago, be overlooked. Projected to face the winner of Alcaraz’s quarter, the Russian has had an underwhelming summer since reaching the last four at Wimbledon for the first time, losing to Alex De Minaur in Toronto and suffering a rare defeat to Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati. Yet it would be foolhardy to discount the claims of a man who has only once failed to reach the semi-finals or better since 2019. 

Medvedev, who was defeated by Alcaraz at Wimbledon and also lost to the Spaniard in the final of Indian Wells, has been barely less enthralled by the 20-year-old’s rivalry with Djokovic than the rest of the watching world.

“I watched most of the [Wimbledon] final,” said Medvedev, who opens against Attila Balázs of Hungary. “It was amazing to watch, because Novak was kind of down in the beginning of the fourth set. I was surprised he managed to win it with the way the match was going. 

“Then, at the same time, I was surprised how Carlos managed to turn it back. That’s why at the moment they are No 1 and 2 in the world. You cannot argue with that because they are able, even when they play against each other, to turn matches around so many times. Same about Cincinnati… amazing level.

“Great rivalry so far. But now, every tournament, a goal for everyone is to try to stop them from playing each other.”

That being the case, it would be foolish not to look beyond the usual suspects in assessing where the danger might come from. In Alcaraz’s case, early opponents could include Max Purcell, the idiosyncratic Australian who extended him to a decider in Cincinnati, and Cameron Norrie, who defeated him six months ago in the final of the Rio Open. Adding to the potential for hazard is the form of Alcaraz himself, which has been less than destructive in recent weeks. While he raised his level in the final, Alcaraz’s progress in Cincinnati was far from assured, with the Spaniard taken the distance in every round.

Djokovic appears to have been dealt the easier hand draw-wise, although history suggests the Serb can take little for granted at what has been arguably his least successful major. Lack of success is, of course, a relative concept for a man whose CV includes three US Open titles and a further six appearances in the final. Yet, as those near misses suggest, Flushing Meadows has not always been a happy hunting ground for Djokovic. Unable to enter the US last year as a result of border restrictions on travellers unvaccinated against Covid, Djokovic delivered an underwhelming performance with the grand slam at stake against Medvedev in 2021, and was defaulted for inadvertently hitting a line judge with a ball a year earlier. 

Things appear to be looking up for the 36-year-old, however. According to artificial intelligence analysis, Djokovic has been handed the most favourable draw of the 128 starters in New York. Following an opener against Alexandre Muller, a Frenchman ranked 84 in the world, the world No 2 could face Laslo Djere, a fellow Serb who took him the distance in Belgrade last year, in round three. A first meeting with Francisco Cerundolo, the Argentinian world No 20, could await in the last 16, ahead of a projected showdown with either Stefanos Tsitsipas, the seventh seed, or Taylor Fritz, the American world No 9.

The most significant obstacle to Djokovic’s progress may come in the semi-finals, where he is projected to face Holger Rune, the Danish fourth seed. Rune has the rare distinction of holding a positive record against the former champion, having won the two most recent of their three meetings, indoors in Paris last November and on the clay courts of Rome earlier this season. Yet, having suffered a back injury that forced him to retire from his opening match in Cincinnati, and then taken a thinly-veiled dig at the decision to schedule his Flushing Meadows opener against Spain’s Roberto Carballés Baena on Court 5, the 20-year-old has not been in the best place of late. The same could be said of Casper Ruud, a finalist last year but beaten early in Toronto and Cincinnati. 

With the third quarter potentially wide open, conditions may be ripe for a home success story. Could Frances Tiafoe, who so memorably reached the semi-finals last year, riding the momentum of a fourth-round win over Nadal to push Alcaraz all the way to a fifth set, make good on his emotional vow in the aftermath of that defeat to “come back and win this thing one day”? Again, recent form is not wholly encouraging. A better bet for domestic success may be Tommy Paul, who defeated Alcaraz on the way to the Canadian Open semi-finals and took him the distance a week later in Cincinnati. 

Ultimately, though, it is hard to look beyond Djokovic in the lower half.

“He’s one of the greatest of all time,” said Alcaraz. “No doubts about it. Everything he does in the game is unbelievable. [A] mental rock. I’m going to say he never gives up. 

“I mean, [in] tough, tough moments, probably he shows that he’s down and he’s going to lose, and he always gives the chance to himself to keep playing and be able to win.”

Whatever history may suggest about the prospects of the US Open delivering a final between the two best players in the world, one thing is certain: a first-round victory over Muller will see Djokovic usurp Alcaraz at the top of the rankings, the seventh time this season the top ranking will have passed between them. Even when they are not facing each other across a net, their fortunes seem to remain inextricably entwined. If the prevailing wind blows history to one side a fortnight from now, few will be complaining.

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If the Spanish world No 1 locks horns with Novak Djokovic on Sunday for a second time in two months, as the seedings suggest and most neutral observers hope, his first task will be to ensure there is no repeat of the crippling tension that hobbled his challenge at Roland Garros, where he was rendered lame by cramp. Holger Rune does not carry quite the same aura as Djokovic – few do – but the gifted Dane came up through the junior ranks with Alcaraz and, as the top seed acknowledged after his 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-4 victory, it is a matchup he finds challenging.

“For me, it’s not easy to play against someone that I’ve played so many times,” said Alcaraz of his contemporary. “When we were younger, we grew up together, same age. For me, [he] is not really easy to play against.”

That difficulty manifested itself in a first set laced with anxiety. There was a tightness about Alcaraz’s play; the signature moves were there, but the execution sometimes lacked its usual freedom and fluency. An overhit lob, which followed an overhit drop shot, was a case in point. That came in the opening game, bringing up a first break point for Rune. Alcaraz instantly snuffed out the danger with a 132mph serve, but the tone was set. 

Faced with an inviting second serve that might have yielded three break points, Alcaraz sent a return long. He began a service game with another overcooked drop shot and lob. Unforced errors, of which he would make a dozen in the opening set, proved costly, thwarting the Spaniard’s efforts after a blazing forehand return winner had carried him to 0-30. The Murcian’s frustration mounted, finally boiling over in a huge yell of distress and some animated chatter to his box when he sent a backhand wildly long in the eighth game. From the other end, Rune cast his rival a quizzical look.

Despite these lapses, the standard from both men remained exceptionally high. It was never likely to be otherwise in a first grand slam meeting between two of the game’s most luminous young talents. For that reason alone, the match was of course much than a mere dress rehearsal; for Alcaraz, in particular, it was freighted with significance, an opportunity to underline, lest there be any doubt, his pre-eminence among his own generation. 

The magnitude of the occasion was spelled out at the conclusion of the first-set tiebreak. The shootout began with an early mini-break for Alcaraz courtesy of a glorious backhand pass, jabbed crosscourt at an acute angle, that drew a broad smile from the Spaniard and a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd. 

It did not take Rune long to get back on level terms, but at 3-3 the Danish sixth seed gifted the initiative to his rival with a double-fault, and this time the Spaniard made no mistake. Having worked his way to three set points, Alcaraz rifled a backhand return winner down the line and let out a prolonged, visceral roar that spoke of relief and release.

“It was nerves, tension, it was everything,” said Alcaraz. “The first set, it was really tough for me. A lot of nerves. I couldn’t control it at all. I was able to win the first set, the key to turn around a little bit my emotions.  

“It helped me a lot, that [was] huge after the first set to put out all the nerves and start to enjoy the moment, to enjoy the match. Smiling for me, as I said a few times, is the key of everything.”

For Alcaraz, this was nonetheless a day for steel rather than smiles. Alcaraz would make only one more unforced error in the entire match, exhibiting precisely the kind of ruthless efficiency that has become synonymous with Djokovic. It is a quality he will need if he is to thwart the defending champion’s attempt to win a record-equalling eighth title.

First, though, Alcaraz will need to negotiate a route past Daniil Medvedev, the third seed, who reached his first Wimbledon semi-final with a 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 victory over Christopher Eubanks of the United States. Alcaraz, who was comprehensively beaten by the Russian in the second round two years ago, will not want for belief.

“I’m playing great, a lot of confidence right now,” said the Spanaiard. “It’s going to be a really good match, I think.

“He’s a really complete player. I’m going to say – I think [Andrey] Rublev said it a few times – he’s an octopus. He catches every ball. It’s amazing, he’s an amazing athlete, I think a mix of everything. He does almost everything well.”

Increasingly, so does Alcaraz. It should be some match.

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In the past two months alone, Rune has been accused of faking injury in Munich, barracked in Madrid after erasing a disputed ball mark from the clay, and widely condemned for failing to acknowledge a double-bounce at Roland Garros.

Few, then, will have been surprised when the Danish second seed once again found himself in the eye of the storm at Queen’s Club, where he battled to a 6-4, 7-5 win over Lorenzo Musetti after taking a medical timeout that blew the Italian’s challenge fatally off course.  

On this occasion, however, Rune may have been a man more sinned against than sinning. There was a notable drop-off in the velocity of the 20-year-old’s serve after he received treatment on his right wrist at 4-1 down in the first set, and while sceptics will have noted that the Dane’s delivery regained pace as he served for the set, his average service speeds for the match were down by roughly 40mph compared with the previous two rounds. 

Unsurprisingly, Rune bridled at a reporter’s suggestion that he did not appear to be injured.

“I didn’t put a serve in [at full pace at] the start of the match because I felt my wrist,” replied Rune. “So I don’t know what you see, but that’s how I felt. If you’re in my body, you can say something like that. But if you’re not, you shouldn’t say something like that.”

It is not the first time Rune has been accused of deploying a medical timeout as a tactical weapon at a key juncture in a match. He faced similar allegations following his quarter-final win over Casper Ruud last month in Rome, where the Norwegian led by a set and a break only to lose his rhythm and his way after Rune received treatment on a shoulder problem. Yet the numbers appeared to support the Dane’s protestations here, and in truth Musetti’s problems were largely of his own making, the 21-year-old paying the price for his passivity as he failed to drive home the early advantage.

Musetti did, however, drive home a meaty overhead at 2-2 in the second set, striking Rune on the back as the Dane struggled in vain to take evasive action. Despite firing a short ball straight at Musetti earlier in the rally, Rune made his displeasure plain, directing a death stare at his opponent, who was quick to apologise.

The flashpoint, which recalled a similar incident between Cameron Norrie and Novak Djokovic in Rome last month, seemed to inspire Rune, who went on to save two set points as he sealed a place in a grass-court semi-final for the first time in his career.

“Of course, he can do what he wants,” said Rune. “I mean, it’s not the best thing to do, for sure. But again, it is legal. He can do what he wants, he can hit the ball where he wants to.

“For sure, this just gave me fire in the belly to beat him even more. I’m super happy to manage to beat him in two sets. It feels good. I’m in the semi-final; he’s not. So I’m happy.”

Such controversies tend to obscure Rune’s appetite for a scrap, a quality he will need if he is to maintain his encouraging trajectory on a surface where he had never won a match before this week. The Dane will face Alex de Minaur in the last four after the Australian seventh seed saw off Adrian Mannarino, the French world No 46, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

In the upper half of the draw, top seed Carlos Alcaraz will face Sebastian Korda of the US, who defeated Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). Alcaraz, who will regain the world No 1 ranking if he claims his first title on grass, recovered from 3-0 down in the second set to beat Grigor Dimitrov.

“This was my best match so far, and I’m going to say my best match on grass,” said Alcaraz of his 6-4, 6-4 win over the former Wimbledon semi-finalist.

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A year ago, the Brazilian world No 14 won the first tour-level titles of her career in Nottingham and Birmingham. She has since reached a first WTA 1000 final in Toronto, made a debut appearance at the WTA Finals alongside Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina, and reached the quarter-finals or better in Portoroz, Tokyo, Talinn, Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Stuttgart and Rome. Along the way, she has beaten Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Maria Sakkari. 

It is a formidable body of work, one that has confirmed the 27-year-old as the finest female player to come out of Brazil since Maria Bueno, who won three Wimbledon titles and four US Open crowns between 1959 and 1966. Yet there has been one glaring hole in her resumé: an inability to compile a grand slam run commensurate with her talent. Improbably, Haddad Maia arrived in Paris having never previously advanced beyond the second round of a major in singles.

It has been a heavy cross to bear for a player regularly mentioned in the same breath as Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten, who won the first of his three titles in Paris in 1997, shortly after Haddad Maia’s first birthday. But the landscape has altered over the past nine days at Roland Garros. On Monday, Haddad Maia survived an epic contest against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo to become the first Brazilian quarter-finalist in Paris since Bueno in 1968. 

In a triumph of industry, self-belief and determination, the 14th seed recovered from a set and a double break down to prevail 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-5 in three hours and 51 minutes. It was the longest tour-level match of the year – eclipsing by 10 minutes the mark set by Haddad Maia and Anhelina Kalinina in Rome last month – and third longest main draw women’s singles match at the French Open in the open era.

“It’s a dream,” said Haddad Maia. “I think since I started to play tennis, me, my family, and everybody from my team, I was dreaming and working very hard for this moment.  

“I’m very proud for what I did today, and also the last matches, because I had to fight a lot.”

That is putting it mildly. Haddad Maia recovered from match point down in the previous round against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, and this was the third successive match in which she has been extended to a deciding set. To give her achievement some context, it took the Brazilian only 13 minutes less to subdue Sorribes Tormo than Swiatek has spent on court in four matches, although admittedly that statistic is somewhat skewed by Lesia Tsurenko’s retirement with illness just 31 minutes into her fourth-round meeting with the Pole.

Had she been able to convert any of the three match points she held in the ninth game of the decider, Haddad Maia would have been home and hosed almost half an hour earlier.

But Sorribes Tormo, a player of ferocious intensity and competitive appetite, is not noted for making life easy on her opponents. Neither woman had previously made the fourth round of a major and, with so much at stake, a meeting of two of the tour’s most courageous competitors was never likely to be a straightforward affair.

So it proved. After a blistering start by Haddad Maia, Sorribes Tormo chiselled away at a 5-2 first-set deficit, making ball after ball, keeping the Brazilian away from the centre of the court with the spin and penetration of her forehand, revelling in the chance to ensnare her opponent in the kind of physical, mental and emotion marathon that is her forte. 

A first set of six breaks culminated with a tiebreak in which Sorribes Tormo won a sequence of brutal, extended rallies. When went on to edge a 10-minute battle to break again at the start of the second set, combining some dazzling defensive play with powerful counterpunching, audacious drop shots and even a brilliant lob volley, the tide looked to be turning decisively in her favour.

That impression deepened when Sorribes Tormo battled to a 12-minute hold before stealing into the net to seize a second break with a drop volley. By this point, the 6ft Haddad Maia was being forced to play most of the rallies from above head height as Sorribes Tormo sought to nullify the power of the Brazilian, who had resolved that attack was the best form of defence, by throwing up looped topspin balls. 

But Haddad Maia, who was only 15 years old when she made the first of four visits to the surgeon’s table, is no stranger to adversity. Even as her glances towards her coach, Rafael Paciaroni, became more frequent, so her spirit rose. Stepping inside the baseline, she rediscovered her quality and her conviction, claiming 11 of the next 14 games to move within touching distance of victory.

“Tennis is not 100-metre race, it’s a marathon,” said Haddad Maia. “Especially my matches. I worked very hard since [I was] young, and my mentality is to not give up, always to give one more chance to [myself], even if things are not going the way that I want. 

“I think the key today was the discipline, to be calm and to accept that, okay, I was missing. Okay, she was playing better. She changed the game. 

“But we are in Roland Garros playing on Suzanne Lenglen, and I will try until the last point. I think the key was to fight today.”

That was never more the case than when Sorribes Tormo fought off three match points against her serve at 3-5 in the decider, the last with an impudent flicked pass that bamboozled Haddad Maia into stabbing the ball long after the Spaniard had shaped to go the way.

It set the scene for a dramatic finale, Sorribes Tormo summoning a final gesture of defiance to break Haddad Maia as she served for the match, only for the Brazilian to reclaim the break and complete the job at the second time of asking. Having blasted her 65th winner of the afternoon, Haddad Maia’s features crumpled with emotion.

“I think the emotions were there for both of us,” said Haddad Maia. “As I said [after] the last match, when we play big matches against big players in big tournaments – we played almost four hours – it’s not only about tennis, it’s a lot of things that come through our minds.

“I was trying to give one more chance for me, because I knew that I was missing a few shots. But I’m very happy and proud that I did not give up and I was trying to push until my limit. I think I deserve it because of that.”

Few would argue. Haddad Maia will now face Ons Jabeur, the seventh seed, with more history on the line as she attempts to become the first Brazilian woman to make the semi-finals since Bueno in 1966. Jabeur saw off Bernarda Pera of the United States 6-3, 6-1.

The winner of that match will face either Swiatek or Coco Gauff, who defeated Slovenia’s Anna Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 to set up a repeat of last year’s final.

“Since last year I have been wanting to play [Swiatek], especially at this tournament,” said Gauff. “I’m the type of mentality, if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. I think also if you want to improve, you have to play the best.”

In the men’s draw, Holger Rune will face Casper Ruud in the last eight after edging past Francisco Cerúndolo of Argentina 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7). The match was marred by a moment of controversy when the chair umpire, Kader Nouni, failed to spot a double bounce early in the third set as Rune scrambled to hoist up a defensive lob. To the evident irritation of Cerúndolo, the Danish sixth seed failed to own up to the error and went on to break for 3-1. 

“When I was hitting the ball, I didn’t know, I just ran for it,” said Rune. “I saw it after the next point on the TV, and I saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened and [Nouni] called the score.  

“So I felt sorry. Sorry for him. Yeah, I mean, then I managed to break him. I held serve. Then after he broke me, it was close again. You know, this is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Ruud, the fourth seed, defeated Chile’s Nicolás Jarry 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 7-5 to set up a repeat of last year’s quarter-final against Rune, which ended with a frosty handshake from the Dane. Rune later accused Ruud of screaming in his face in the locker room, a claim the Norwegian denied.

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