Near the end of the 2022 season, we saw some explosive results from yet another young player in Holger Rune. The Dane finished the season by reaching four consecutive finals, winning three including the Paris Masters 1000. He beat five top ten players in a row to capture the title in Paris, including Novak Djokovic.
He’s also scored wins over Tsitsipas, Auger-Aliassime, and Alcaraz. Rune has an explosive game on the court with a fiery temper to match. He’s only 19 years old and sports a much improved serve and one of the most effective backhands on tour.
He should be near the top of the game for years to come assuming he can stay healthy and on track!
Let’s take a look at his equipment.
- Endorsed Racquet: Babolat Pure Aero 98 (check price here)
- Actual Racquet: Babolat Pure Aero VS 2020
- Strings: Babolat RPM Blast 130
Pure Drive to Pure Aero VS
Rune is not shy about showcasing his practice sessions on social media. His sessions have shown up on tennis fan accounts that track upcoming juniors for years.
Back then, he was wielding the Babolat Pure Drive but has somewhat recently switched to the Babolat Pure Aero VS, just like his peer Carlos Alcaraz.
The Pure Aero VS offers more control and feel than the Pure Drive without skimping on power and spin capabilities. It’s a great racquet for Rune, as it provides a bit of extra power and spin without being too difficult to control.
- Rune using a Pure Drive at Roland Garros when he was younger
It’s quite obvious that Rune is using the Pure Aero VS mold and not some other racquet under a paintjob, as the mold, string pattern, beam shape, and grommets all match with the retail version of the racquet.
His racquets are likely “competition” models from Babolat that are made to a stricter quality control standard and may have slightly different decals (sometimes the specs are not printed on the frames), but they’re effectively the same sticks as we can buy off the shelf in a pro shop.
We can pretty safely assume that his Pure Aero 98 paint for the refreshed Pure Aero line is just a paintjob.
This is both because pros are generally going to stick with the exact same racquet for years and we can see his grommets are the same as the outgoing model but will reportedly be different on the new retail edition.
Specs
There has been a bit of varying information regarding Holger’s specs. He himself has said on podcasts that he adds weight to his racquet but that it’s not too different from the off-the-shelf model. Stringers have reported one series of specs that is similar, so I’ll include that here:
- Strung mass: 337g
- Strung balance: 32.6 cm
- Strung swingweight: 335
Others have reported that he uses the strung specs of:
- Strung mass: 337g
- Strung balance: 34.4 cm
- Strung swingweight: 350
I’m more inclined to believe he uses the first set of reported specs, given how explosively he swings the racquet. However, we won’t know for sure until one of his personal frames leaks into the public’s hands or a stringer or customizer provides pictures of the racquets on a RDC.
Either way, this leaded up Pure Aero VS provides Holger with good stability and plenty of power on tap for his aggressive baseline game. He seemed to be eager to come to net during the indoor swing, and that should serve him well there too if the balance is not as even as the second report.
Strings
Holger employs Babolat RPM Blast 16/130 as his string of choice. No reliable source has mentioned the tension he employs.
This string is quite dead in this thicker gauge and affords his powerful racquet some extra control.
Conclusion
The young Dane Holger Rune uses a powerful, spin-friendly racquet to complement his explosive game. Though reports are conflicting on how much weight he adds, he definitely customizes his frame. It will be interesting to see what his specs actually are when somebody can come up with them.
Regardless of his racquet, though, his dynamic game and just-bratty-enough temper should bring fans and haters alike to his matches for years to come!
If you’re interested in other ATP players’ racquets, I listed all the top 100 players’ racquets in this post.