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.

I packed my bags and left for my first tournament in three months. It wasn’t a long journey, just a couple of hours drive, and I didn’t have to leave Denmark but the feeling… wow, how I have missed this feeling.

A mix of happiness, joy, nerves, all the emotions were back in my body and mind. A club in Denmark had arranged an invitational tournament and I was about to play competitively for the first time in months. Eurosport was there and the matches were shown on TV so naturally I wanted to do well.

I had a great practice period but just before the tournament I had a bit of a downer. The feeling of practising without a goal had hit me. Somehow, I lost track of my development. Had I improved at all when practising? Was I better or worse now than before the lockdown? I wasn’t able to measure my development and I wasn’t able to test myself in matches like I normally do.

The format was Fast4 and best-of-3 sets. Almost like Next Gen [best-of-5 sets]. I did perfectly in the first three matches. Actually, I was better than I had hoped. I easily found the rhythm in my game, I was offensive, moved well and played three great matches on day one. The next day we moved to another club for the semi-finals.

I was much too relaxed before going on court – finding the right level of intensity and energy before a match is not something I had thought about; I just found it. Being used to playing tournaments regularly makes a lot of things very natural. Now there are things I have to remind myself to do. I started much too slowly in the semi-final, which is a catastrophe in a Fast4 format. I lost. I was so upset. But it was a good reminder that tennis is not like learning to walk or ride a bike. Tennis has so many aspects: technical, physical, tactical, mental. And also the small routines before and during matches are so important in order to perform your best.

I had a good talk with my mom. She is always very honest with me. Sometimes this can be very annoying, especially when she says things I know are right but don’t want to hear. We talked about how important it is for me to be myself on court. Always be loyal to my game and my personality. And if I lose then ok. But losing not playing my game and not being myself on court is just a horrible feeling.

One week after there was another invitational tournament in Denmark held by Jan Leschly. This was broadcast on the biggest national TV channel in Denmark. And this time I already felt much better prepared. I remembered my routines and I kept in mind my talk with my mom about being myself at all times. I played great matches and won the tournament. This was regular sets. Classic tennis matches in the format we know.

From here followed two invitational tournaments in Sweden, including one in Båstad where the ATP tournament is normally played. I felt great playing on the centre court there. This time it was the Fast4 format again. I won both tournaments in Sweden, so when the ITF and the ATP announced that tournaments will start again in the middle of August I was just so happy. I felt this was the best news in 2020 so far.

When I look back at this whole lockdown, naturally it has been a disaster for the world, for human beings and for businesses, but finding the positives I will say that during these months I have developed in many aspects. And not just on court. These aspects I think are crucial for getting results in professional tennis and looking back I maybe wasn’t as ready at the beginning of the year as I thought I was. So naturally I am excited to start competing again.

Last week I left for the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy. It’s so great to be back here. I really like the atmosphere and the people around. And the level of players is fantastic. Right now, they have the UTS [Ultimate Tennis Showdown] tournament here. So, I have practised with both [Stefanos] Tsitsipas and [Matteo] Berrettini. I have practised with Tsitsipas before at the MTA and in London at the ATP Finals and what amazes me every time is that he is so professional in everything he does. He is a fantastic example for young guns with big dreams like me.

The UTS tournament at Mouratoglou is also a product of the lockdown. I like the idea of flirting with other formats in tennis in order to get the younger generation to watch more tennis. I think we are all conservative because we grew up watching tennis in one format, but our parents also grew up with no mobile phones like we know today. So, I like the idea of being open-minded because older is not always better.

I watched the first ATP Next Gen Tournament ever held where among others [Andrey] Rublev and [Denis] Shapovalov played. Earlier that year I had been to another ATP tournament and this Next Gen was just so intense. Sitting close to the court, feeling the nerves from these young guys, that was an experience that I will never forget. I could mirror myself in these guys because they were still not all perfect. They were young. Last year I watched the final with Jannik Sinner in Milan and I loved it. So, this is definitely a goal for me to play the Next Gen and give it my all out there.