Holger Rune causes a scandal in Basel: "You are destroying this game"
Holger Rune completely lost his nerve after a controversial decision in the final of the ATP 500 event in Basel. The young Dane made a verbal blunder to chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Nov 01, 2022, 07:57 am
The fact is, Holger Rune was not able to celebrate his second title win in a row on Sunday, no, Felix Auger-Aliassime won his third title at ATP level within three weeks at the ATP 500 event in Basel. The Canadian won 6:3 and 7:5 in a hard-fought match, especially in the second round. As the final score already shows: It was a late break by the Canadian that ultimately decided this match. How this came about, however, is extremely controversial.
When the score was 5:5 and 40:40, a technical error occurred in the middle of the rally in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel. An advertising board switched from dark to bright advertising during the rally. Rune felt irritated by this and canceled the point – which Felix Auger-Aliassime was awarded a little later. Much to the dismay of the young Dane. "What on earth are you doing!", "You must be kidding me," Rune yelled in the direction of Swedish chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani. Although Rune was able to thwart the following breakball, his Canadian opponent used his fourth chance a little later.
Rune continues to discuss on Twitter
Rune couldn't be calmed down when he changed sides: "You make such a huge mistake in such a phase of the final and you're even too proud to look at me now? You behave like a king!" Said the 19-year-old in the direction of the Swedish Chair umpire, who protested that he simply did not see the flickering - if that had been the case, he would of course have had the point repeated. " I honestly admitted that. If I had seen it, I would have shouted 'Let'," Lahyani said on court.
Even after the final, this situation still seemed to concern Rune, at least the Dane used the car trip to Paris to diligently discuss with the users on Twitter. When a fan tweeted that he had to get his freaks under control, Rune just silently posted a video of the incident. In which the flickering can of course be clearly seen. The Dane has his next chance at career title number three this week, at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris Rune meets Stan Wawrinka at the start.