Holger Rune returns to Stockholm a year after Achilles rupture

Holger Rune returns to the Stockholm Open this week, a year after the Achilles rupture that kept him off the tour for 11 months. The Dane opens against Belgium’s Zizou Bergs on Tuesday at the Kungliga Tennishallen, the same indoor court where his 2025 season came to an abrupt stop.

Rune tore his Achilles during the 2025 Stockholm event, halting a tournament he had won in 2022. He spent 11 months away from competitive tennis, returned at the Davis Cup, then played his first ATP Tour match in 11 months at the Japan Open in Tokyo.

A year off the tour

The injury struck at a peak. Rune had lifted the Stockholm trophy in 2022 and arrived at the 2025 edition among the favourites, only for one movement to shift the course of his career. He has described the episode as “scary” and admits the lost year still stings.

“I feel bitter about not being able to play in a year like this,” Rune said.

The layoff spanned nearly a full season, and Rune has conceded that getting back up to the ATP Tour’s standard has proven harder than he expected. An Achilles rupture ranks among the most feared injuries in tennis, and players often struggle to regain their previous level even after surgery. His return began at the Davis Cup before moving to Tokyo, where the Japan Open provided his first real match test in almost a year. Every step of the way, he has had to measure himself against players who never stopped competing.

That first match in Tokyo was never going to be routine. Rune has spoken about the difference between training and playing, and the tour offers no gentle reintroduction — the level waits for no one.

Back at the scene

Stockholm holds both his greatest triumph and his heaviest setback. Rune won here in 2022, then tore his Achilles on the same courts three years later. Tuesday’s clash with Bergs is his first competitive appearance at the venue since that night.

The draw has offered no soft landing. GRV Media reported Rune was handed a nightmare draw for his return, and the day’s schedule brings little relief — Lorenzo Musetti, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Alex Michelsen all feature on Centre Court on Tuesday alongside Rune.

The Stockholm Open is an ATP 250 event, a compact stop on the European indoor swing. For Rune, it carries far more weight than its position in the calendar suggests.

Federer is the model

Time away has not cooled his ambition. Rune has named Roger Federer as his model, drawn to how Federer sustained excellence over two decades and came back from setbacks to keep winning titles. That is the template he wants to follow as he tries to climb back toward the top of the game, and he says that ambition carried him through the long months of rehab.

Sinner is part of that reference point. Rune trained with Jannik Sinner in Monte Carlo in June and does not hide his admiration: “He’s an unstoppable force. The way he hits the ball from both sides is insane.”

Form rounds into shape

His results are pointing up. Rune reached the quarterfinals in Basel, his best run since returning, before going out. Before the injury, he had pushed to the Brisbane International final, where Grigor Dimitrov beat him 7-6(5), 6-4 — Dimitrov’s first title since the ATP Finals in 2017.

Tuesday’s match against Bergs is the next measure. Stockholm is where Rune first showed he belonged on this stage; a year after the worst injury of his career, it is where he is trying to prove he can come all the way back.