World No. 9 Holger Rune reportedly faced rejection from married tennis pro Veronika Kudermetova, who alleges that the young Dane texted her. The 28-year-old Russian player claims that Rune, 22, has stopped speaking to her after she informed him that she was “too old” for him and is married – and the claims were brought up by announcers during her Canadian Open match against Coco Gauff.
Rune, who made a name for himself on the ITF Junior Circuit as a teenager, burst onto the ATP Tour in 2022. He scored the biggest victory of his nascent career at the Paris Masters, triumphing over both Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, although he recently suffered a salty Wimbledon exit.
Despite being a rising star on the tour, working on his craft under the supervision of Andre Agassi, he now stands accused of texting a fellow female player, though. During an appearance on Elena Vesnina’s podcast, a former No. 1-ranked doubles player from Russia, Kudermetova claimed that Rune privately messaged her.
She alleges that Rune now avoids greeting her at tournaments after she dismissed his text and reminded him of her marital status.
“Rune recently texted me,” she started. “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.’ Since then, he doesn’t even say hello to me anymore.”
Kudermetova is married to Sergei Demekhine, who at 41 is 13 years her senior. Demekhine also serves as Kudermetova’s coach and helped her achieve doubles success at SW19 earlier this month with partner Elise Mertens.
In 2023, Rune made it official on Instagram that he was in a relationship with Caroline Donzella, a high-end real estate agent of Dutch-Italian descent based in Monte Carlo. Donzella was first seen cheering for Rune at Wimbledon two years prior, and while he initially introduced her as a “friend,” it appeared a romance had sparked.
However, the current status of their relationship remains uncertain. There’s no indication that Rune was seeing anyone when he reportedly reached out to Kudermetova. Rune’s representatives have been contacted for comment.
Both the Danish player and Kudermetova competed at the Canadian Open this week. Rune scored a victory over big server Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the opening round and then beat another Frenchman, Alexandre Muller, to book a spot in the last-16.
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Kudermetova, meanwhile, fell to Gauff in the second round, with the American claiming a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win. During the match, one of Tennis TV announcers couldn’t stop herself from bringing up Rune’s alleged messages to Kudermetova.
“I don’t know if you heard about this tea… not tennis related, but there was news that Holger Rune apparently texted Kudermetova, and she said she was too old for him and married,” the announcer said.