- Caroline Donzella is the girlfriend of upcoming Danish tennis star Holger Rune
- The pair started dating in 2022
- Rune has only won in one of his 10 matches this year
Caroline Donzella, the girlfriend of upcoming Danish tennis star Holger Rune,, has sparked a debate on whether she is a distraction to the 20-year-old ATP player.
Tennis players’ girlfriends are sometimes accused of being a distraction to their partners on the court. And in recent months, Rune has been the subject of this well-worn narrative.
Rune made a brilliant breakthrough in October 2022 in the top tier of the men’s game. He went on a brilliant run that saw him defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the ATP 250 tournament final in Stockholm and followed that up with a run to the final in Basel.
Then, in Paris, he won his first ATP 1000 championship by defeating Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. This gave him the biggest win of his career to date and propelled him into the top 10 ATP ranking.
Danish tennis star Holger Rune. Photo/Eurosport
Rune was singled out as a genuine threat to the league’s top stars thanks to his action-packed and high-risk approach, but he has struggled to uphold such very high standards in 2023.
While he has had back issues hindering his performance, some quarters feel that his relationship with Donzella is to blame.
At just 20 years old, he is still getting used to life as a top-ten star and that downturn in luck should not come as a surprise, others say.
Rune has only won one match in his previous six competitions since making it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in July, with an alarming number of his losses coming in the opening round.
Rune has a lot of points to defend from his explosive end to last season, so if he repeats that pattern in the remaining tournaments of 2023, he will fall out of the top 10 of the ATP rankings.
Donzella distraction proponents say that Rune hasn’t put his head in the game because he takes a lot of time thinking about his girlfriend.
Rune recently addressed questions on whether Donzella is a contributing factor to his slump in form after he lost his opening match at the Nordic Open.
Boris Becker is the new coach for Holger Rune. Photo/Sky Sports
In his response, he stated that his girlfriend has nothing to do with his recent streak of losses in 2023.
“The results are nobody’s fault. It’s my fault. It has absolutely nothing to do with her,” he told Expressen in a video posted online.
He termed it unfair for people to try and fix a narrative around a third party to justify his slumping performance.
“Caroline is not to blame. That is only my responsibility. People only want to look for external factors and blame others, but only I am responsible,” he said.
As this happens, Rune is handling his rocking ship and is determined to rise to the top for the rest of the season.
He appointed German Boris Becker as his new coach. Becker publicly announced his tennis comeback by coaching the Danish star and said he would focus on working on his attitude, and emotional and mental strength.
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