Holger Rune isn’t here to sugarcoat things: "If I want to cry, I cry. If I want to scream, I scream"

Don’t expect Holger Rune to hold back what’s on his mind, whether it’s during a match or after he's had time to mull things over.

A day after falling to Jannik Sinner in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals, where the Dane was the recipient of a rather questionable unsportsmanlike conduct warning, Rune took to social media to express his displeasure with how events went down in response to a post uploaded by the ATP highlighting a winning forehand shot by Sinner.

“Not that you gave me the best conditions in the first place having to play two matches the day before ending late, leaving almost no recovery time,” Rune’s quoted reply included.

On Thursday, Rune finished off Sumit Nagal in a second-round match that was carried over as a result of rain, then saved a pair of match points to clinch a thrilling encounter over Grigor Dimitrov in a decisive tie-break. Having also won a pair of doubles matches earlier in the week with Taylor Fritz, Rune and Sinner were slotted as the second match on Friday.

Hours after citing the ATP’s post, the 2023 finalist reflected on his latest stint at the Masters 1000 event.

“Three matches in 38 hours,” he wrote with a tears of joy emoji. “Happy about my level of tennis.”

After one user responded, “real champions don’t cry like this,” Rune had no problem giving it right back.

“Hi. If I want to cry, I cry. If I want to scream, I scream. That’s me,” he declared. “And by the way, I never cry. This post was mainly mentioning that it’s probably the shortest tournament I had in a long time in Europe and still three matches . Very efficient.”

Combined with not matching his runner-up points and the results of his peers, the current world No. 7 will drop out of the Top 10 Monday for the first time since the week of January 2, 2023.

Rune now heads to Munich, where he seeks a three-peat at the 250-level tournament. The 20-year-old saved four championship points to deny Botic van de Zandschulp last year, marking his fourth and most recent title run.