'If I want to go on a date, I ask for a date': Holger Rune claims Anna Kalinskaya misread him

Danish tennis player Holger Rune has responded to recent comments made by Russian player Anna Kalinskaya, who claimed he had been messaging her on social media. In a recent interview, Kalinskaya was asked if any male players from the ATP Tour had messaged her on social media to ask her out. She revealed that Rune was one of them.

Rune had also been called out a month earlier by Veronika Kudermetova under similar circumstances. The 28-year-old player, who has been married to her coach Sergei Demekhine since 2017, admitted in a recent interview that Rune had messaged her on Instagram.

“Rune recently texted me. I told him, 'Boy, I'm probably too old for you. If you looked at my Instagram, you’d see I have a husband.' He replied, 'Oh, sorry.' After that, he stopped saying hi to me," Kudermetova said.

This time, Kalinskaya was asked in a Russian-language interview if any male players wrote to her on social media. "More often before. Now I'm older, I don't know. For some it's no chance at all, no need to write. Someone wrote like 10 times then gave up,” she replied.

The current world No. 32 went on to say that Rune had also recently messaged her. "He writes to everyone,” Kalinskaya said. “He deserves all this, thinks too much of himself. Maybe he’s just that hopeless, but he’s not the only one.” Kalinskaya previously dated Nick Kyrgios and was in a relationship with Jannik Sinner in 2024.

Kalinskaya's interview has been widely shared on social media, prompting Rune to give his own verdict on the situation with an ironic reply to his colleague's comments. "Ha ha ha. We might have cultural differences that make Anna read a comment on a story as an invitation to a date. if I want to go on a date, I ask for a date. Don't worry."