Welcome to the latest instalment of Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune’s blog. The 17-year-old won his maiden Junior Grand Slam title in 2019 and is focusing solely on professional tournaments from now on. Holger is writing regular pieces for the ITF and providing insight into his tennis journey. Follow his progress here.

While for the last few weeks I have been playing tournaments in Spain, I also watched the ATP Finals in London and it is so interesting to see the younger players getting better and better – their level of tennis is so high.

I remember seeing some of those guys playing the first edition of the Next Generation ATP Finals in Milan in 2017 and it was fascinating because they seemed so young and people really felt their emotions in the small arena.

Only three years later, the likes of Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are playing at the ATP Finals and they continue to develop. For me, that is a big inspiration.

Thanks to the young guys on Tour I can see a pathway and I’m working towards big things happening. If I keep improving and having good results, the Next Generation ATP Finals in 2021 are possible and an aim of mine.

There are no guarantees of success in life, but it helps a lot when you can actually see yourself on the way up, there is a clear goal and the road you need to take is realistic as long as you put in the work.

I was lazy when I was younger. While I still love to lie down and watch a movie or tennis on my iPad, at the same time I know what I want and, luckily, that drive is bigger than my laziness.

As you probably all know, I absolutely love tennis. I love hitting the ball and the clean hit makes me smile. The movements, the adrenalin before matches, the taste of victory, the frustration – I adore it.

Perhaps some results would come faster if I wasn’t a little lazy but, on the other hand, I am always happy on and off court and never stressed. I believe I am on the right road.

In this strange world of wearing masks, social distancing and empty streets, I feel so lucky that some countries continue to host international tennis tournaments and I’m able to train, travel, compete and almost keep up a normal life.

My recent tournaments have seen strong fields as so many good players are hungry for matches and I seem to be a magnet for seeded players in the first round.

At M15 Valldoreix, this was no different and I faced Marco Trungelliti, a great Argentinian player who is ranked No. 247 in the world and seeded No. 1.

I had some clear goals for the events in Spain and I had to improve as I wanted to start beating very good senior players rather than just take a set off them. I kept this focus throughout.

In some matches, I was surprised to see how things turned around for me, from being down to suddenly a break of serve up without doing anything other than playing my tennis.

In the past, I would always try and come up with something different if the match wasn’t going my way and there would be times when I was a little too creative with super aggressive serve and volleys or drop shots.

In Valldoreix, I did all the right things and was thrilled to win the tournament. It feels very satisfying when you work on something and can clearly see it making a difference.

My plan this year was to win a Challenger event and I was all set to go to South America and try and get a spot through qualifying but since borders were closed to Europeans, I decided along with my team to withdraw before the deadline.

On the same day as I withdrew, we received notification that borders had reopened, which made me a little sad as I always try and achieve my goals, but it is just how the world is these days.

My team, however, has put together a plan for the rest of the year instead of the Challengers. I am playing team matches here in Denmark, which is a great way to maintain match fitness and practice things I want to get better at, while it is fun to hang out with the boys.

At the weekend, Leschly Tennis Foundation hosted an event and I played France’s Benoit Paire, who is ranked No. 28 in the world, which was my biggest challenge so far.

I have trained many times with top players, whether it be as a hitting partner at last year’s ATP Finals in London or the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, but I have never previously played a real match against a Top 100 player.

It was brilliant. I was down two match points in the third set and I came up with two crazy passing shots and suddenly the match was mine. It is something I will always remember as it was my first Top 30 win.

Benoit is a cool guy and his serve is amazing. It was a fantastic experience for me and we were also very lucky that spectators are allowed at sporting events in Denmark, so it was lovely to play in front of a home crowd.

From here, I will finish my year by playing two M15 tournaments in Turkey after which it is holiday time before pre-season. I’m not sure how Christmas will be spent as we are currently not allowed gatherings of more than 10 people and we’re meant to be hosting 20 family members.

Perhaps we should postpone Christmas until March! But like everything else this year, while it is so difficult to plan, the people around me always seem to come up with something good and I am so grateful for that. I’m sure it will be a fun time regardless.

If I don’t see you before, I wish everybody a very healthy end to the year and all the best for 2021.