Holger Rune’s return to the ATP Tour has not gone to plan so far, with the Dane losing his first two matches at the China Open and the Shanghai Masters.
Rune spent 11 months out of action after suffering an ACL injury at the Stockholm Open last October.
He returned to action at the Davis Cup, where he picked up two victories against Grigor Dimitrov and Illyan Radulov for Denmark against Bulgaria.
However, the star has been beaten in the first round of the China Open and the Shanghai Masters since, to Kyrian Jacquet and Daniel Altmaier, respectively.
Alcaraz has told Rune to be patient with his comeback and now Novak Djokovic has shared some advice with the star once ranked as high as world No 4 on the ATP Tour rankings.
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Speaking at the Shanghai Masters, Djokovic said: “Yeah, I’m very, very happy that he’s back. I like Holger and I also like playing him. We always have the great battles really.
“I’ve watched the highlights of that that match where he got injured and what happened and the replay of that and it was it was horrible to watch honestly. I’ve been in touch with him several times while he was absent from the Tour and we went back and forth on different topics and, of course, I’ve been keeping track on his return and I was very glad that he was able to come back and make his comeback at the Davis Cup in his country.
“So that was very nice. I saw I saw that last night he had a tough tough battle and tough loss. But you know it will take some time I guess. It’s really relative and it’s very individual, you know, and his injury is one of the worst injuries that you could have.
“It took him away for a year almost. So, the match play is completely different than any practice sets or practice competition that you’re getting.
“I mean, it’s really difficult to compare, you know, because the nerves kick in and then, you know, you have your score being cold and then all of a sudden every shot, every point matters and you’re, you know, afraid to miss and then you get tense and stressed and that affects the whole game, right?
“So, um, he just needs to get more matches more matches going and I hope that he is he’s going to find his his best game very soon.”
Rune currently sits at outside the top 1200 following his absence and return matches, but he remains upbeat he can turn his fortunes around.
Speaking about his defeat to Altmaier, Rune said: “Won 53% of the points, but not the one that mattered the most… and Altmaier played well.
“A lot was way better in this match than in my last, so definitely on the right track. I keep working. Step by step. See you soon on court again.”
Rune will next be in action at the Swiss Indoors, which begins on the 24th October.
