The German tennis legend sees many parallels between Rune and his former protégé. “I like his emotional outbursts,” he said of Rune. “I have already coached a player who was sometimes not completely at his wits on the court.” The now 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic had hired the three-time Wimbledon champion Becker to prepare himself mentally for the fight at the time to arm myself against greats like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: “Especially from a psychological point of view, he helps me because he already knows these situations.”
The 20-year-old Rune, who has not yet made it past the quarter-finals in the four major tournaments, should now benefit from this. “Boris was also very young, even younger than Holger, when he achieved great success,” Aneke Rune, the mother and manager of the world number six, said recently when speculation about the collaboration arose. The tennis professional himself fueled the rumors with a group photo of himself, Becker and his team on Instagram. “Great training week in Monaco,” wrote Rune.
The training week now becomes a permanent commitment. Becker revealed in the Eurosport podcast “Das Gelbe vom Ball” that he will be taking part for the first time at the ATP tournament in Basel, which begins on Saturday. He will also travel to the Paris Masters with Rune and “hopefully help him qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin. That is the big goal and that is the task.” According to a Sky report, Becker will act as a “super coach” at selected tournaments, but Lars Christensen will remain a coach.
“Proud that he asked me”
“It makes me a little proud that he asked me. The contact has existed for a long time. Now it’s a great fit,” said Becker: “My calendar allows it, and I’ve always been interested in Holger because he’s on the tennis court with so much commitment and temperament.” Sometimes with too much, which makes him extremely talented Dane sometimes gets in the way. That’s exactly where Becker wants to start – he has factored in friction. “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.”
The six-time Grand Slam tournament winner was most recently back on duty as a television pundit after being released from prison in Great Britain in December for tax offenses. When he was able to report on the Australian Open again for Eurosport in January, he said: “I missed the closeness enormously, after all, tennis is my greatest passion.” Now he is even closer.
