Holger Rune has the all-court game to be a serious grass player, but the 2026 season passed without him after an Achilles rupture. With no matches to defend his rating, he fell from 100 to 93 and finished 30th in the GTC Grass Rankings.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 93, 30th in the men’s rankings (23rd before the season)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 26, Arsenal 62, Wimbledon 42, Nerve 44
- Nationality: Denmark
- Best Wimbledon result: Quarter-final (2023)
- Grass titles: None yet
- Plays: Right-handed, two-handed backhand
- 2026 status: Missed the grass season after rupturing his left Achilles in October 2025
How Holger plays on grass
Rune brings more variety to grass than most of his generation. He can serve and follow it in, he is comfortable at the net, he uses the drop shot and the backhand slice to change pace, and he moves quickly enough to turn defence into attack. The backhand down the line is a reliable weapon on a fast court. That range is why his Arsenal score of 62 sits well above the rest of his profile.
The weaknesses are more about consistency than tools. His level can swing within a match, and on grass, where a single loose service game can decide a set, that costs him. A Nerve score of 44 reflects a mixed record in tight moments at the big events. The Lawn Form score of 26 is a different matter: it records his absence, not his ability.
Grass record
Rune’s best grass season came in 2023. He reached the semi-finals at Queen’s Club without dropping a set, beating 6th seed Lorenzo Musetti along the way, and then reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz, the eventual champion. In 2024 he lost in the first round at Queen’s to Jordan Thompson but reached the Wimbledon fourth round, losing to 2nd seed Novak Djokovic. His other Wimbledon appearances, in 2022 and 2025, ended in the first round. He has no grass titles.
The 2026 grass season
There was no 2026 grass season for Rune. He ruptured his left Achilles tendon in the Stockholm semi-final against Ugo Humbert on 18 October 2025, retiring while a set up, and had surgery. He withdrew from Roland Garros and then from Wimbledon, saying his recovery was progressing but not quickly enough to return. The rating held at 100 through the warm-up events at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Queen’s and then fell to 93 once Wimbledon passed without him. By August his world ranking had dropped to 102nd. He confirmed his return for Denmark’s Davis Cup tie against Bulgaria in Hillerød on 18 and 19 September 2026.
Looking ahead to 2027
The 2027 grass season will be Rune’s first since the injury, and the main question is physical: grass asks a lot of the lower legs, with low bending and sudden changes of direction. If he is fit, his ranking may mean qualifying or wildcards for some events, so a busy warm-up schedule at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Stuttgart or Queen’s would make sense. Lawn Form will rebuild quickly with match wins, and the realistic target is to restore a rating around 100 and a place in the second week at Wimbledon. A quarter-final, as in 2023, would be a strong comeback rather than an expectation.
