By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Photo credit: Koji Watanabe/Getty
Holger Rune had a front-row seat to see his tennis hero, Novak Djokovic, collapse on court in Shanghai.
After dropping a punishing second set to Jaume Munar at the Rolex Shanghai Masters today, Djokovic was floored.
The 38-year-old Serbian superstar fell flat on his back and laid out on the court for several seconds as chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani and the physio rushed out to attend to the fallen Djokovic.
The Grand Slam king arose and continued play scoring a heroic 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 triumph in two hours, 41 minutes. But that scary sight reinforced Rune’s opinion that the ATP Tour must enact a heat rule as the Grand Slams have in place.
Djokovic and Munar started play amid sweltering humidity that soared above 80 percent.
Rune went the distance in a 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 win over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard today then expressed support for the ATP adopting a heat policy to protect players’ health in extreme conditions.
“I think there should be a heat rule like there are in the Grand Slam. I think every player would agree on that,” Rune said. “Today was better, as you say, today was less hot. But again, it was less hot, but if it was more normal temperature today would be very hot. I think it was like 31 degrees and very humid. But compared to the other days it was pretty brutal.
“So I think there should be some kind of rule. We can handle a certain amount of heat because, you know, we are fit, we’re strong, we’re mentally strong as well, but there’s always a limit. I think it’s also important to take care of your health. We need to survive.”
World No. 2 Jannik Sinner was forced to retire due to cramping during the third set of his second-round loss to Tallon Griekspoor earlier this week. Djokovic himself vomited on court in his Shanghai win over Yannick Hanfmann.
“I think some kind of rule, you know, not that we should stop if it’s just more than this, but like the Grand Slam, you know, they have a feeling on when it’s a little bit too much, and we wait a little bit to see if it drops,” Rune said.
