Holger Rune “will take a nap” next time a supervisor comes out to discuss an electronic line call

Holger Rune may have been on the receiving end of constant boos erupting from a partisan crowd late Sunday evening in Madrid, but the world No. 7 doesn’t impart any blame on the local audience.

The Dane came out on the losing side of the scoreboard in a third-round encounter to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 7-6 (1), 5-7, 7-6 (5), after 1 a.m. Yet the most widely trending topic to emerge from the contest was a period from the opening set. Davidovich Fokina questioned the accuracy of the tournament’s FoxTenn electronic line calling system after Rune held for 4-3, and subsequently protested to chair umpire Carlos Bernardes to bring out the supervisor for a chat.

Rune, who was forced to wait as the discussion played out for more than 10 minutes, walked over to the area in question and appeared to drag his foot along the clay. It did not go over well with those in the stands, or Bernardes.

“I told you once in Monte Carlo, but that was fine. There are crowds that you cannot control if you do things like that,” the Brazilian said, as he urged the newly-minted 20-year-old to trust his years of experience overseeing matches at the Caja Magica. “They will be worse if you keep doing it. If you just play tennis, they don’t do anything else.”

The world No. 7 reacted to it all in a social media post Monday, conveying his dissatisfaction with those watching inside not receiving an update on what was happening when Davidovich Fokina made his argument.

“Yesterday the crowd didn’t understand what was going on. You cannot overrule a computer call,” Rune wrote. “And it took the umpire and supervisor a very long time explain this to my opponent. And they didn’t bother to communicate this to the crowd.”

How does Rune plan on handling the situation if history repeats itself?

“Next time I will take a nap while they discuss. Just want to say that personally I don’t hold nothing against the Spanish people and I look forward to come back to [the] Mutua Madrid Open.”

Rune is 9-2 on European clay through three tournaments (runner-up in Monte Carlo prior to successfully retaining the Munich crown). He is slated to compete at the next Masters 1000 event in Rome.