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Holger Rune seemingly thought the Madrid crowd acted "disgusting and disrespectful" toward him during his Madrid Masters third-round match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. On Sunday, Spain's Davidovich Fokina upset sixth-seeded Rune in a thriller 7-6 (1) 5-7 7-6 (5).
For pretty much the entire match, the Madrid crowd was extremely engaged in the match, with all the support going Davidovich Fokina's way. Rune was evidently bothered by the crowd - he complained several times about it during the match - and after the match retweeted a tweet from a Rune fan account.
"Outrageous behavior from the Spanish crowd screaming and applauding after every missed first serve by Holger Rune. Zero class. Disgusting and disrespectful," the tweet that Rune retweeted read.
Rune later shared an explanation of what really happened.Outrageous behavior from the Spanish crowd screaming and applauding after every missed first serve by Holger Rune.
Zero class...Disgusting and disrespectful pic.twitter.com/CYFtie1xgY — Holger Rune News (@running_rune) April 30, 2023
Love. No hate ❤️💛 @MutuaMadridOpen pic.twitter.com/6WB4M6ttjq — Holger Rune (@holgerrune2003) May 1, 2023
Chair umpire Carlos Bernardes had some advice for Rune
While Rune was pleading Bernardes his case, the chair umpire told the Dane to keep it strictly tennis and not engage in any type of war with the crowd.
“I told you once in Monte Carlo, but that was fine. There are crowds that you cannot control if you do things like that, they will be worse if you keep doing it. If you just play tennis, they don’t do anything else," Bernardes told Rune during a changeover.
Meanwhile, Davidovich Fokina called Rune "a great player" after beating the Dane in a three-hour thriller.Umpire Bernardes to Holger Rune:
“I told you once in Monte Carlo, but that was fine. There are crowds that you cannot control if you do things like that… they will be worse if you keep doing it. If you just play tennis, they don’t do anything else”
pic.twitter.com/hs8nFCax3s — The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) April 30, 2023
"Mentally and physically it was very hard. Rune is a very good player. It was always tough games and we had to stay focussed on every service, because you never know when you [can] have the break point. I had my chances in the third set too, but I had a lot of tension and I was a little bit anxious to finish the point.
But I did well and I'm very happy," Davidovich Fokina said after beating Rune. Rune will now turn his focus on the Rome Masters.