Holger Rune left his Nordic Open match against Ugo Humbert in tears, after suffering an apparently severe left-leg injury at the end of two of the stranger minutes of the tennis season.
Rune led Humbert 6-4, 2-2, 30-30 when Humbert saw a ball kid move out of the corner of his eye in the middle of a point, as he moved up to hit a high, short forehand. The 27-year-old Frenchman floated the ball back into the court, appearing to stop the point, and Rune moved forward to put the ball away and go up break point.
Humbert protested to the chair umpire that a let should have been called because of the interruption, but she did not see the incident and Rune left the decision on it to her judgement. The 22-year-old Dane, who came into the match carrying a hamstring problem in his left leg, waited for the next point for two minutes or so, cooling down all the while.
On the very next point, Humbert hit a wide serve to Rune’s backhand, and then hit his next shot into the open space on the Dane’s forehand side. Rune scrambled laterally to retrieve the ball, but jumped as he went to hit it, stumbling out of the movement and immediately clutching at his lower left leg before signaling to his box that he could not continue.
Not the ending anybody wanted 😔
Humbert progresses to the final as Rune retires due to injury at 6-4 2-2#BNPParibasNordicOpen pic.twitter.com/ptMV9ZkC4S
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 18, 2025
He limped to the side of the court in tears and elevated his leg on his racket bag. After some medical assessment in which Rune told the physio that he heard a pop near his Achilles tendon, retired from the match.
“I don’t want to talk to much, I feel sorry for Holger,” Humbert said in his on-court interview.
Rune has had an indifferent season at the Grand Slams, but reached the BNP Paribas Open final in March and won the Barcelona Open title against Carlos Alcaraz in April. Humbert will play either Casper Ruud of Norway or Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the final Sunday.