“I struggled to give the best of myself,” Holger Rune compares the coaching setup of Boris Becker and Patrick Mouratoglou

After a back injury and mental health struggles, Holger Rune found his strength in Boris Becker's coaching.

“I struggled to give the best of myself,” Holger Rune compares the coaching setup of Boris Becker and Patrick Mouratoglou

Patrick Mouratoglou (L), Holger Rune (M), Boris Becker (R) (Sources: USA Today, Eurosport, The Hindu)

Holger Rune has suffered a lot with his form lately. The back injury that he incurred in the 2023 French Open made him struggle for months and clearly had a negative impact on his performance.

However, besides that, there was a psychological aspect as well, which was eating him. There was apparently a lot of tension between his two coaches, Lars Christensen and Patrick Mouratoglou, which translated to severe mental pressure on Holger Rune as well. 

YouTube video

It was earlier estimated that Holger Rune would keep Lars Christensen in his team and end terms with Patrick Mouratoglou. However, he changed his decision and ended up appointing Boris Becker as his new coach.

FS Video

There has been a visible improvement in his performance ever since. He recently reached the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors and the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. 

I had a lot of difficulties in my team. I think the more peace and quiet there is around a tennis player or athlete, the better they perform. And the fewer there are, the harder it is to stay focused. So I struggled to give the best of myself. And that’s not good for an athlete.
Holger Rune said. (H/T: We Love Tennis)

Holger Rune will hope to perform well in the ATP Finals 2023 as well. He has been placed in the green group of the competition alongside Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, and Stefanos Tsitsipas and will be facing Novak Djokovic in the very first match. 

The top two players from both groups will reach the semifinals. The other group, i.e., the Red Group, consists of Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev. 

Holger Rune looks to bounce back under Boris Becker 

Boris Becker (L), Holger Rune (R)
Boris Becker (L), Holger Rune (R) (Sources: Watson.de/Reuters)

Boris Becker is known to be a good coach, and he has a good record to back him up. Novak Djokovic, the player he previously coached, won many accolades under his wing. In fact, they won as many as six Grand Slam titles and 14 ATP Masters 1000 titles during their time together. 

The kind of poor form that Holger Rune has been going through since Wimbledon 2023 was diabolic. He lost 10 out of the 11 matches that he played after that.

Thankfully, Boris Becker is the kind of coach who can bring him back on the right track, and he has started showing signs of that too. Rune has performed decently in the Swiss Indoors and the Paris Masters, and hopefully, he will maintain that in the upcoming ATP Finals as well. 

In case you missed it: