Stan Wawrinka blasts “baby” Holger Rune after Paris Masters thriller

Holger Rune is on fire and the opposition isn’t feeling the burn.

The Danish teenager saved three match points to edge past Stan Wawrinka, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3) and reach the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters—improving to 15-3 since the US Open with three finals and one title—but Wawrinka wasn’t impressed with Rune’s on-court conduct, calling him a “baby on the court” as the two shook hands at net.

The moment carries some irony given an incident Wawrinka himself endured at the 2014 ATP Finals in London when, while playing Roger Federer, Federer’s wife Mirka was alleged to have called Wawrinka a “crybaby” from the stands.

All the same, Rune has courted controversy throughout his rise up the ATP rankings, starting last spring when he was heard uttering homophobic slurs at the Biella Challenger, and got into a verbal dust-up with Casper Ruud following their Roland Garros quarterfinal in June.

Ruud echoed similar sentiments to Wawrinka at the time, saying, “I don’t know Holger personally, but I have seen on TV that sometimes there can be a lot of drama. He’s young and new, so that’s excusable, but when you’re on a big stage, it might be time to grow up a bit.”

Rune is yet to directly acknowledge the interaction on social media, tweeting the match point—with video including the exchange—with the caption, “Grateful.”

What a fight,” he tweeted later. “@stanwawrinka is an incredible fighter and I am grateful be on to the second round.”

Known to jump into conversations on Twitter, he replied to a fan musing on the state of his coaching team. Given the lateness of the hour in Paris, there may not be more tonight, but expect this story to heat up even more in the next 24 hours.