Watch: After Novak Djokovic, Holger Rune gets brutally booed by the crowd while facing tournament favorite Jannik Sinner at Monte Carlo QF
The 2024 Rolex Monte Carlo Masters witnessed another player-crowd interaction as they jeered on Holger Rune during his match against Jannik Sinner.
The Dane was up against the Italians in the quarterfinals, when the match took a rather different turn. A very interesting match was flowing well up until Rune got a time violation for delaying a serve. Following this was a huge roar of booing from the crowd.
With an Italian-heavy crowd present, they booed Rune for the violation, who in turn directed the crowd to be quiet. With his hand gestures, he indirectly told the crowd to be quiet. However, little did he know that he violated another code, and rightly so, he got another violation for his unsportsmanlike behavior.
He received two- violations at a time as the Dane continued to get on the other side of the crowd. This was the second player-crowd interaction, as the tennis world had witnessed the same with none other than World No. 1 himself. Novak Djokovic had also interacted with the crowd as he orchestrated their booing.
However, while Djokovic’s short interaction stopped right there with a win, Holger Rune’s continued as he went to the umpire to double-check the violations, and the crowd did not stop booing the 20-year-old.
Holger Rune calls out the supervisor to double-check his second violation
Holger Rune’s little scene pressed pause on the match. What started as a time violation turned out to be another violation for Rune.
However, he did not stop there and took it to the umpire to double-check his decision. Rune questioned the umpire over his decision to issue another violation, and they had a small to-and-fro. Unsatisfied with the umpire, Rune demanded the supervisor. Soon after, even the supervisor entered the court and solved the problem.
Upon hearing both sides, the Supervisor explained it to Rune, and in no time, the Dane was back on the court. This entire while, the crowd only got louder with their jeering as they continued to boo the youngster.
However, it seemed like this small break was rather helpful for Rune, who acquired a new spur of energy and marched forward with his game. From two points down, he returned to win the game and force the set into a tie-break.
The match only got more interesting from here. The crowd stopped booing the youngster as he took the game into a deciding set. Now, only one set stands in between Rune and the semi-final position, as he hopes to get back his ranking points.