2025 Barcelona Open ATP 500 Final - [1] Carlos Alcaraz Garfia (SPN) v/s [6] Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune (DEN)

[nolefam_2024]

Those who said Carlos would destroy Holger in the final clearly hadn't watched Holger's matches during the tournament. He was on a warpath after dropping a set to Baez.

No we did and Carlos played below average. There is no major shift in RG contenders in my mind. Today is Rune day but if you want to make it war with his naysayers, we can come with pitchforks.

 

[Impetus]

Zverev doesn't seem to have been around that long. Time flies.

That’s the trick with good wall filling. You simply forget how long time it’s been there.
Nah. He’s good. As wall paper.

 

[ojo rojo]

This is just a small step towards Holger’s eventual 15 RG trophy haul..
Congrats!

 

[Dane_is_Finnish_OJ]

Actually it was his match against Ruud that opened my eyes a bit. He destroyed a competent clay courter against whom he has historically struggled a lot. That revealed that he’s in a good place mentally and I was sure he would at least make the final and keep it competitive against Raz.

Looked very strong in set 2 and 3 against desert clay fox Baez.

 

[Dane_is_Finnish_OJ]

Well, my tolerance for "fanatics" is pretty low, and that goes for all. Just love the game. Enjoy a number of players. If this place goes as gaga for Alcaraz and Sinner as it did for Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic - it'll be endlessly annoying - and it seems to be going down that path. Always happy for upsets, even gleefully happy. Nice to see guys stepping up and playing. Nice to see the same guys not winning every tournament like clockwork.

The Rune Psycho Maniacs Age has begun. And I will be its leader.

 

[NoleFam]

I missed the match and will have to catch the replay later but I'm happy for Rune and he seems to finally be back on track after a lackluster 2024 season. This should make RG more interesting. Congrats.

 

[MeatTornado]

As a guy who has worked in broadcasting and media most of his career, I'm absolutely shocked that they have her solo'd in the booth for a Final between Rune and Alcaraz. Someone needs to get fired over this

Either someone called in sick last second or no one agreed to work on Easter Sunday.

 

[Tennisfan339]

Congrats Rune. What a week. Baez, Khachanov, Ruud and Alcaraz. That's a much stronger field for a 500 than Alcaraz winning Monte-Carlo last week.
If he plays like this in Roland, he'll be an underdog at worst. I'm liking his game and his personality more and more.

 

[Daniel Andrade]

Alcaraz getting humiliated at home, must be embarrassing.

These losses are far worse than a MC final loss. Your homecrowd and still lost in your youth on your preferred surface. Nadal is much more greater

Calm down lmao

 

[TheGoldenEra1990’s]

Rune has the game to win multiple slams. Mentally he remains a question mark

 

[Move]

Rune has the game to win multiple slams. Mentally he remains a question mark

Agree, but there are positive signs. Federer was no mental giant from the get go either

 

[sortof]

Exactly a year ago Rune was clobbered (2:6; 0:6) in Munich by the then mighty Struff man. What a difference to Barcelona today!

 

[Tallawah Tennis]

Great week by holger, consistently playing at his best, i hope he carries this form as long as possible, hes great to watch, carlos plays at madrid in just a few days, probably didnt want to compromise his body too much, he knew he had to play his best to beat holger today, nothing less was gonna cut it

Yah man, my take too. Firstly, it is great to see Holger playing well again, hopefully dude will build on this momentum. His demeanour / attitude has been impressive. As for Carlitos, what a pity he couldn't make more of a match of it. Looked off kilter in the 2nd. Whatever it is, I hope he recovers energy very soon. Meanwhile, excellent run from MC to here - onwards!
Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed Barcelona - let's see what Madrid brings!

Hopefully this is a career defining win for Rune and he can take this momentum into the big tournaments. Alcaraz needs to rest, he seemed disengaged in this match. I'd skip Madrid if I was him then be well rested for Rome and RG.

Agree that - your assessment seems prudent.

 

[Move]

Is he going to jump in the pool?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1914003346710487140

 

[nolefam_2024]

Calm down lmao

This is what I read on Twitter

 

[tudwell]

The tour needs Rune playing top ten tennis. Sad Alcaraz faded the way he did (although I didn’t actually see the second set), but happy for Rune to find some form again. Hopefully he keeps it up.

By far the worst part of all this is Zverev getting back to no. 2.

 

[McGradey]

Nice from Rune. Alcaraz plugged away a bit but seemed to wither when Rune out-solided him. Brat summer, baby!

 

[tennis24x7]

Alcaraz has challenger level shot tolerance and no brain in constructing points. It’s horrific.

how can he win so many GSs if his shot tolerance is so bad.

 

[Aabye5]

how can he win so many GSs if his shot tolerance is so bad.

weak era

 

[Winners or Errors]

how can he win so many GSs if his shot tolerance is so bad.

Because he's streaky as all get out. He can go on 2-3 week tears in which he is nigh unbeatable. He just can't keep it up for 52 weeks, and often can't do it for even a week. Definition of mercurial. Love it, but if you were hoping for the next Djoker-Fed-Nadal of consistency, it's not Alcaraz. It may be Sinner, but I'm hoping there are enough streaky players like Alcaraz who catch him when they're hot to make tennis interesting.

I may be wrong, but at this point that's what it looks like to me.

 

[clayqueen]

https://tennis.com/Zwxsh/status/1913894065818730739

 

[Tennis Devolution]

No we did and Carlos played below average. There is no major shift in RG contenders in my mind. Today is Rune day but if you want to make it war with his naysayers, we can come with pitchforks.

Wrong, carlos alcaraz is absolutely no true all-time great so you better get completely used to that FACT.

 

[Tennis Devolution]

how can he win so many GSs if his shot tolerance is so bad.

It is because carlos alcaraz is a complete utter fraud who will be completely defeated and exposed by the TRUE tennis great soon.

 

[Dane_is_Finnish_OJ]

how can he win so many GSs if his shot tolerance is so bad.

And still he beats Sinner.

 

[robyrolfo]

It’s not just you, but I’m just tired of that kind of post. I love watching Alcaraz play, so then reading “Alcaraz fanatics” is annoying, even though I’m probably not the kind of fanatic you have in mind. And then writing that this must “drive them nuts” with obvious glee makes the post seem even more spiteful. I’d love for this forum to be positive and pro-tennis rather than anti this guy or anti those fans. Anyway, that’s just me, carry on!

Unfortunately this phenomenon is persistent and widespread. Every top athlete (and team) now has a bunch of annoying internet "fans" that have intertwined their personal lives, identities, mental states... with the results of a player or team.

It's annoying and/or outright disgusting to deal with, but I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. Like so many other things, this is just another area where the internet has revealed the worst in human nature.

You don’t want to see your kids grow up. You want them to stay the same.

With Rune it’s more like: what on earth took you so long, boy. And don’t you dare going back to the immature brat we all know you have inside of you!

I'll believe it when I see a full year of consistent/solid results. Not saying it's impossible, but I'm far from convinced he is even close to that yet.

 

[Mainad]

Rune wins his 5th ATP title, 1st at 500 level and 1st since winning 2023 Munich. He completes a hat-trick of players from all 3 Scandinavian countries to win the title in Barcelona (along with Ruud from Norway and Carlsson from Sweden).

 

[DSH]

Is he going to jump in the pool?

Yes!