What a weekend it was for Denmark’s Holger Rune as he defeated home favourite Carlos Alcaraz to win the Barcelona Open and claim his first ATP Tour title for two years. Rune has returned to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings as a result.

At moments like this it is always fun to look back at a player’s career and consider their journey and footage of Rune winning the 2019 ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu has been published on the ITF's digital channels.

The ITF Junior Finals – the junior equivalent of the ATP and WTA Finals – sees the best eight boys and girls from the previous year do battle for one of the most prestigious junior titles and big ranking points.

This is what Rune, who previously wrote a regular blog for the ITF, said in the aftermath of his ITF Junior Finals victory.

"You need to have something to win finals as it's not easy," said Rune. "You have a lot of nerves before the match and there is always a lot going on. 

"It's about calming those nerves, drawing on your experience and focusing on your game. Going forward having the ability to do that is massive. 

"If the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray couldn't handle the pressure then they wouldn't have won the Grand Slams they have.

"There are a lot of Top 20 ATP players that could win a Grand Slam but don't have the mentality. I’m getting there.

"That's where I want to go and having that mentality is a process. I'm willing to go through that process and go through the pain to get to where I want to be."

It was a significant title or the then 16-year-old, who a few months earlier won the boys’ title at Roland Garros. He proceeded to win four ITF World Tennis Tour titles before making his mark on the ATP Tour, initially at Challenger level.

The ITF player pathway in action.