Welcome to the latest instalment of Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune’s blog. The 18-year-old won a Junior Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2019 and has claimed four titles since focusing solely on professional tournaments. Holger is writing regular pieces for the ITF and providing insight into his tennis journey. Follow his progress here.

On Sunday, I contested my first ATP Challenger Tour final at Oeiras and even though I lost to Portugal’s Gastao Elias, I am on course to achieve my ambitions for the 2021 season.

While the development of my game remains the priority, I hoped that I would have progressed enough to be ranked within the world’s top 300 by the end of May and after Oeiras I am No. 291. The aim now is to continue that development and be top 150 by October and then top 100 by the close of the year.

I like having goals as it is a structure which allows me to see if the work I am putting in is good enough. The same applies to my statistics, whether it be second serve returns, forehand winners or whatever – I am always looking to improve.

Reaching the top 300 follows a crazy few months and when I look back at that time, I have learned so much.

Experience comes from being in the field, not a nice safe environment like the practice court at home. Luckily, I love a challenge and I am a lot wiser now than a few weeks ago. This is what it is all about, learning from victories and defeats.

When I wrote my last blog piece, I was just about to make my ATP main draw debut in Buenos Aires. From there, I went to Chile where I reached the main draw of the Chile Open in Santiago through qualifying. This was really big for me.

I then won my first ATP main draw match against Sebastian Baez of Argentina before defeating France’s Benoit Paire, who was ranked No. 29 in the world at the time, to record by far the best match-win of my career.

I was into my first ATP quarter-final and that was more than I could have hoped for. I was just a bit sad that I didn’t manage to find a way to go further but my opponent, Federico Delbonis, was strong on the clay and maybe I was a little overwhelmed.

But, as I say, it is all part of the learning process and whenever I finish one tournament, I am ready for the next. From here, I went back to Europe and the plan was to enter some ATP Challenger events.

However, the opportunity came to play some more ATP tournaments and I managed good results at Barcelona, where I beat Mikael Ymer and Peter Gojowczyk in qualifying to reach the main draw.

Before playing Monte Carlo and Barcelona, however, I felt I needed some practice on clay and since it was snowing in Denmark I looked around for a solution.

All players seemed to be overseas in the United States and Mexico, although I suddenly noticed that Novak Djokovic was in Monaco. I hit with him at the 2019 ATP Finals so I felt it might be worth contacting him on Instagram.

Instagram is the only social media I have and it works so well during tournaments as all players use it to contact each other. I have used Instagram before to message players and ask for advice about specific challenges which I know they handle well.

Nick Kyrgios, for instance, helped me out when I asked for help with playing lefties, while Andrey Rublev is another who has given me some specific advice. For me, it means a lot that these top players take time to answer.

It is especially welcome as I come from a country which has no top male players currently, so I don’t really have anyone with experience that I can ask for help. Sometimes it is tough that I do not have anyone to lean against and copy what they do.

But I try to take a little from every player on tour in terms of what impresses me and how they combat certain types of player or act in difficult situations. Equally, when younger players write to me, I always find the time to answer and advise.

After messaging Novak on Instagram, I was invited to practice with him in Monaco and it was deeply fascinating. There is a reason why he is ranked No. 1 in the world and has won what he has: you don’t get to be No. 1 just by playing good tennis.

His mentality and approach to work is amazing and that is not something you build overnight, it is dedication over a lifetime and it is no wonder so many top players have a hard time beating him.

The whole experience was very cool and Novak was so nice and gave me so much good advice. In fact, I was actually a little surprised that he was so open and giving.

It is this sort of experience which is so important for young players like myself and the more tournaments you travel to, the more opportunities you get to practice with top – actually, the best – players.

In the past I have had amazing practice sessions with the likes of Rublev, Matteo Berrettini, Fabio Fognini and many more brilliant players, who are all playing Roland Garros this week – which is where I want to be.

As I say, it is all about development and, through that, I know results and an improved ranking will come. It is always a balance, though, because I cannot ignore the simple importance of results, but I also know what I want to see when I look into the future.

I know and recognise the tennis I want to play and I am working towards that every single day. The NextGen slogan is The future is now and this is a good reminder to play the tennis now that I want to see myself playing in the future.

As part of this development process, as I did in 2020, I have this year received an ITF International Junior Player Grant worth $25,000 and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the ITF for this financial help.

This is a serious contribution towards making all that I wish to achieve possible and me becoming the best tennis player I can. As I say, results are important but there is a huge difference between just winning and actually improving your game.

The grant is not about getting results, it’s about helping me develop and making the transition from junior tennis to the professional game less stressful. I am very grateful for this contribution and I hope my level of development continues to reflect my appreciation.

So, the development goals I would like to achieve between now and the end of the year are out there. The hard work continues.