When Holger Rune discovered that Carlos Alcaraz’s opponent was having trouble with disparaging remarks on social media, he jumped to his defense. The seventh-ranked player in the globe chastised anybody who wished to “write some s***” about tennis players and elaborated on why Alcaraz wasn’t deserving of it in particular.
Alcaraz made a tearful confession during his Sunday match in Indian Wells, stating he found it difficult to handle the negative comments he received on social media about himself. The two-time Major winner also acknowledged that he found it difficult to be himself on the court during a bad run of play.
Rune questioned why anyone had anything bad to say about the world’s number two, and now one of his younger opponents has come out in favor of him. The Dane clarified that he was more adept at avoiding the hateful comments on the internet than Alcaraz was.
“To be honest, I try to avoid reading social media as much as possible,” Rune replied. With social media, I’m not as myself. To everyone of my admirers, I try to give back. Since it truly means a lot, I believe it to be significant.
The 20-year-old still views hate as a “joke,” despite the fact that he thinks it comes with being an athlete in the public glare. Rune went on, “I believe that’s just a small portion of it, but I truly believe that, as someone else mentioned, there are far too many comments posted, and everything is on the internet.
You know, in real life, you hardly ever see someone approach another player and say things like that. You should, in my opinion, exercise some restraint in what you say, especially on social media. It seems significant to me. As I already stated, I can’t speak for all gamers, but I believe that it’s actually kind of a joke for us players.
