Tauson: 'Tennis is a weird sport'

During his run through qualifying, Danish men’s No.2 Elmer Moller said he still has to pinch himself at playing before 11,000 fans on home soil in a Davis Cup triumph over Serbia in February.

It is a growing fascination with the sport, which gained considerable traction during Caroline Wozniacki’s reign at No.1 and following her Australian Open title in 2018.

“I think me and Holger, in particular, are probably some of the most spoken about people. The media is covering every single day whatever we're doing, so it's crazy because I mean tennis is so small in Denmark,” Tauson told rolandgarros.com.

“Obviously, when you have two people who are doing great it's a lot of attention, especially on him – he's been a top 10 player for a couple of years, so it's a bit different for him than it is for me.

“The media you can see here is quite heavy. Different media are sending like five, six, seven people for the Slams so they like to cover us. I don't know why, it's just tennis. It's a different way of life that's for sure but Denmark is a very low-key place. I take public transport every day to my practice and some people know who I am, some people don't. It's just a very low-key country.”

A year ago, Tauson said she was almost moved to tears on court for the first time after she defeated Sofia Kenin – her second straight Slam champion victim after Jelena Ostapenko – to reach a first fourth round at a major.

On Wednesday, a post-match celebration was non-existent after she eked out two tight sets against Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus to make the round of 32 at Roland-Garros for the third straight year.

It is still a long road ahead in Paris. An upset of 16th seed Amanda Anisimova is her next assignment and a breakout start to the season, which included her maiden tour-level title in Auckland and a first win over world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in Dubai, has boosted her confidence.

En route to the silverware in New Zealand, Tauson’s most impressive victory came against Madison Keys. This made her the last player to beat the American before her Adelaide and Australian Open triumphs.

“Tennis is a weird sport. You can beat the No.1 in the world one day and lose to whoever the next day so of course it makes you believe you can be on that level and stay on that level and that's what I'm trying to do,” she said. “I've had some rough years battling a bit with injuries and just my ranking in general.

“Now that I'm up here I'm really just trying to make myself stay up here and be in these kind of rounds all the time. You need to become consistent especially in the big tournaments and then you can go from there. Obviously Maddy [Keys] has been very consistent for many, many years and it finally happened for her when she's almost 30 years old. I hope it doesn't take me that long but we'll see.”

A narrow third-round loss to reigning champion Sabalenka at Melbourne Park snapped the Dane’s seven-match unbeaten start to 2025.

The defeat stung, no doubt, but she channelled that disappointment to flip the script when the pair met a month later in Dubai.

“The match in Australia was my first time playing against her and of course it's hard to play her on Rod Laver (Arena),” Tauson said. “She obviously has a lot of confidence there. I thought it was like seriously one or two points that was making the difference.

“That match I felt like I was the better player in some moments and then she just stepped up as the No.1 in the world does and on the big points she played so big.

“I feel like that was the difference in Dubai. I really took my chances and I went for every shot and I obviously played some of my very best tennis in that match. Maybe she was a little under her best, but I think the way I played in that match you have those feelings maybe two or three times a year. It was a really nice feeling.”

The need to juggle her professional and personal life has added significance for Tauson after she brought on her boyfriend, former Danish player Kasper Elsvad, as her full-time coach last September.

It is a partnership that has paid dividends even if there are days when she has to park frustrations if he orchestrates a gruelling practice session.

“It's obviously a balance we have to find. We were kind of thrown into it because I was lacking a coach and he's obviously played tennis,” Tauson said. “I'm really grateful it happened because I've been playing some good tennis since we started.

“Of course it's hard if you're getting killed on the court and in the fitness and then you have to go home and be all happy.

“When we get home we just relax and have fun and not think about tennis, but we're super serious (about our jobs), we never slack on anything because we both want it so much, and that's so important I think.”