Future with “Rough Diamond” rune
Becker declares his comeback on the tennis tour
October 19, 2023, 12:39 p.m
Boris Becker is celebrating great success as a tennis professional, and the eternal “17-year-old from Leimen” is also highly successful as a coach. Now Becker is returning to the tennis tour after detours that also led him to prison: as coach of the Dane Holger Rune. He reminds Becker of himself.
Boris Becker returns to the tennis tour as a coach. “I can confirm that I am Holger Rune’s coach,” the three-time Wimbledon winner told the Eurosport podcast “Das Gelbe vom Ball”. The 55-year-old revealed that he has been in contact with the 20-year-old star player from Denmark for a long time. “Now it’s a great fit. My calendar allows it and I’ve always been interested in Holger because he’s so committed and temperamental on the tennis court.”
For him, Rune, who is ranked sixth in the world, is “a rough diamond that needs polishing.” Rune himself recently took a group photo on Instagram with himself, Becker and his team. “Great training week in Monaco,” wrote Rune.
Most recently, Becker, who as a 17-year-old from Leimen sent Germany into a tennis frenzy in 1985 with his Wimbledon victory, was back in action as a television pundit after being released from prison for tax offenses in Great Britain last December. As a coach, the former world-class player celebrated success with the 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic (Serbia) between 2013 and 2016.
Becker is supposed to lead Rune out of the crisis
Like Djokovic, Rune also had emotional outbursts that Becker “liked,” as he said. “That’s allowed. The coach and the team create an oasis in which the player has to let it out – if he then apologizes and works with concentration again. I did the same thing back then as a professional,” said Becker. For the first time he will look after Rune at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, which begins on Saturday, said Becker. He then wanted to help him qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin through the prestigious tournament in Paris-Bercy: “That is the big goal and that is the task.”
Rune recently separated from star coach Patrick Mouratoglou after a few months. Serena Williams’ former coach only joined the Dane’s team in October 2022. “It just didn’t work out,” said Rune’s mother Aneke. “Now it’s important that Holger finds the right team that he has for a long time. He has decided that it’s not with Patrick.”
The 20-year-old Rune, who won three tournaments last year and climbed to number four in the world rankings, is currently in the first crisis of his young career: Since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July, he has only been able to play one match on the ATP Decide on the tour for yourself.