“Honestly, man…I might skip the clay season next year. F— clay.” This was a quote making the rounds, supposedly from Daniil Medvedev. Except it wasn’t. A parody account had cooked it up, but it spread fast enough to fool even former American tennis star Coco Vandeweghe during the French Open. It’s not the first time fake news accounts have played with tennis headlines. One of the most notorious is “Tennis Cental,” a parody account that has made a habit of creating fictional stories. Recently, Holger Rune became their latest target, and he wasn’t amused.
The spark came from an interview on a podcast hosted by former doubles partners Elena Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova. Kudermetova shared a lighthearted story about Rune that quickly caught fire online. She said, “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.”
The clip went viral, inspiring memes and jokes across tennis social media. But then, “Tennis Centel” decided to push it further. They posted a fabricated Instagram story pretending to be from Rune, where he allegedly claimed to be single, lonely, and looking for love. The Dane wasn’t impressed. He fired back on X, writing, “Too much fake info here on X please do report accounts faking like this.” Soon after, the account was taken down. But like many things on the internet, it didn’t stay gone for long, however Rune has stood by his stance that fake news can be damaging.
Fresh from his opening-round win over Roman Safiullin at the Cincinnati Open, Rune spoke to Tennis Channel about where he draws the line. “I like jokes, I like fun, all of this,” he said, “but sometimes it gets a bit too real in a way—even though it’s fake. That’s when I don’t think it’s necessary. Obviously, it’s tough to control the whole internet!”
The 22-year-old added that some posts blur the line too much. “I think some posts where it looks too real even though it’s super fake, those are not nice,” Rune said. “It’s a little bit provocative, as well, but I suppose everyone can do what they want.”
Holger Rune hit out at deepfake social media screenshots at #CincyTennis
“I like jokes, I like fun…[but] some posts where it looks too real even though it’s super fake, those are not nice.”https://t.co/8Pr23XpN0J
— TENNIS (@Tennis) August 10, 2025
However, coming back to the real news, Holger Rune also gave a sneak-peak into his ongoing mentorship with Andre Agassi.
Holger Rune opens up on partnership with Andre Agassi
After a disappointing first-round exit at Wimbledon to Nicolas Jarry, Holger Rune took several weeks off from competition. He received a wildcard for the DC Open but withdrew with a back injury. Even so, the 22-year-old traveled to the capital state to recieve some guidance from eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi. That partnership was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. Rune returned at the Canadian Open without Agassi and reached the quarterfinals before falling to defending champion Alexei Popyrin.
However, after his first win in Cincinnati, Rune confirmed that the mentorship is still alive, though from afar. “It’s still ongoing. We’re still chatting a little bit on the phone,” he told Tennis Channel. “He just messaged me also after my match, so it’s nice. He’s such a nice guy as I’ve said.”
He also said, “And also we spoke a little bit after Toronto as well, what I can do better, and we had some talk on the phone, small specific things that, you know, I can make it easier for myself and play better. So it’s always nice to share thoughts through him.”
Holger Rune’s Cincinnati campaign now moves into the third round, where he will face the 28th seed Alex Michelsen for the first time. The fake headlines may have stolen some attention, but Rune’s tennis is doing plenty of talking too.
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