Rune 'simply froze' in Tokyo loss on ATP return after Achilles
Holger Rune lost 6-3, 6-1 to Kyrian Jacquet in his first ATP match in 11 months, then apologised to fans on Instagram.
Holger Rune's return to the ATP Tour lasted two sets. Kyrian Jacquet beat the Dane 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Japan Open in Tokyo on 1 October, per Tennis Majors. It was Rune's first ATP Tour match after 11 months out with an Achilles tendon injury, Sky Sports reported.
Afterwards Rune apologised. "First ATP tournament back after a long time away. Today I simply froze there. I'm sorry to everyone who came to support me and everyone watching from home," he wrote on Instagram, per Yahoo Sports.
The match
The first-round match was played at the Ariake Coliseum, per Tennis Majors. Rune came in ranked No. 188 and unseeded; Jacquet was ranked No. 86, according to Tennis.com, 102 places higher.
The serve numbers were one-sided. Jacquet won all 19 of his first-serve points and never faced a break point, per Tennis Majors. On Rune's serve, Jacquet converted four of his six break opportunities, Tennis Majors reported. Without a single break point of his own, Rune had no way into Jacquet's service games across the two sets.
The scoreline reflects those four breaks. Rune won four games in the match, three in the first set and one in the second.
The injury
Rune ruptured his Achilles tendon on 19 October 2025 in the semifinal of the Stockholm Open against Ugo Humbert, per the Stockholm Open. He described the damage at the time. "My Achilles is full broken on the proximal part meaning I need operation already next week," he said, as quoted by the tournament.
The Tokyo match came nearly a year later. In that time his ranking fell to No. 188, per Tennis.com. Yahoo Sports noted that the former world No. 4 now has to rebuild his ranking after the layoff.
Davis Cup wins first
Tokyo was not Rune's first match back. He returned in the Davis Cup on 18 September, beating Iliyan Radulov in Denmark's World Group I tie against Bulgaria, per the ATP Tour. The next day in Copenhagen he beat Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), the ATP Tour reported.
That made Rune two from two in competitive matches before Tokyo. The Japan Open defeat was his first loss since the injury.
| Date | Event | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2026 | Davis Cup, Denmark v Bulgaria | Iliyan Radulov | Won |
| 19 September 2026 | Davis Cup, Denmark v Bulgaria (Copenhagen) | Grigor Dimitrov | Won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) |
| 1 October 2026 | Japan Open, Tokyo (R1) | Kyrian Jacquet | Lost 3-6, 1-6 |
The numbers from Tokyo
| Measure | Jacquet | Rune |
|---|---|---|
| Ranking | 86 | 188 |
| First-serve points won | 19 of 19 | - |
| Break points faced | 0 | 6 |
| Breaks of serve | 4 | 0 |
| Games won | 12 | 4 |
What it means
Rune's own word for the day was "froze", per Yahoo Sports, and the serve figures from Tennis Majors show how little he got on Jacquet's delivery. Against that, he had won both of his Davis Cup matches two weeks earlier, including a deciding-set tiebreak against Dimitrov, per the ATP Tour.
With a ranking of No. 188, per Tennis.com, Rune starts the climb back a long way from the No. 4 he once held, per Yahoo Sports. Tokyo was the first step on the ATP Tour, and it ended in the first round.