The tennis world strongly embraced the return of Boris Becker in his new path as Holger Rune’s coach. The former world number 1 will guide the Dane in 2024 with great enthusiasm after having gone through a dark period in his life, going through prison.
Boris Becker joined the team Holger Rune back in October, debuting as a new couple in the Basel tournament. Since then, the Dane has put his course for 2024 in the hands of the former 6-time Grand Slam champion. It remains to be seen how this very promising tandem works, but what is clear is that Becker trusts that his new pupil will return to his better level next year thanks also to having at his side a human team led by his own mother.
Back to the circuit that I missed so much
“When I arrived in Basel, the tournament director who gave me my first wild card in 1984 hugged me. I immediately felt at home. The tennis community really made it very easy for me to re-establish myself here, starting with Holger, of course, who really loved me. In Paris, Cedric Pioline, who I must have played against 15 times, greeted me warmly and asked me: ‘where have you been for so long?’. We’ve missed you.’ That was really cool for me,” Becker confessed on the Eurosport podcast, ‘The yellow from the ball’.
Rune’s recovery after a difficult summer
“The start was very intense because Holger’s participation in the ATP Finals in Turin was at stake. To put it bluntly, he had a very bad summer. With a set and a break in the first round in Basel, everyone thought it would be another match difficult, but he showed fighting qualities and really wanted to win. During the preparation we discussed why he had lost the matches. Was it because of his forehand or backhand or was it because of his attitude? If your attitude is not correct, really “You don’t need to play tennis. He improved his attitude game after game, but also his style of play. He lost the semifinal in Basel directly, that wasn’t a good game either.”
Things are clear and Aneke, Holger’s mother, is the glue of the team
“On the train trip from Basel to Paris there was criticism of internal maneuvering. That must be allowed and that is why I asked to be able to tell the truth to my players, even if it sometimes hurts. Things went much better again in Paris. I may be the head coach, but I’m just as important as our analyst Mike James and physical trainer Lapo Becherini. And, in any case, Aneke is the mother of the company: ‘nothing works without her’. For an outsider who has never played tennis, she has incredible knowledge of tennis. And she, above all, knows what is good for her son. So I want to emphasize it once again: it is a team effort between Aneke, Lapo, MJ and me.”
2023-11-24 17:57:42
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