Becker hired as Rune’s coach at least for remainder of 2023

Boris Becker officially joined Holger Rune’s coaching team earlier this week after speculation began following some recent training sessions at which the two were spotted together. The partnership will run at least through the rest of the 2023 season before Becker and Rune assess how things are going and make a decision on 2024.

“It makes me a little proud that he asked me,” Becker explained. “The contact has existed for a long time; now it was a very good fit. My calendar allows it, and I have always been interested in Holger because he is on the tennis court with so much commitment and temperament.

“There’s no point in signing a two-year contract now when you’ve only been cooperating for a week. If you are successful, you usually stay together–no matter what the contract says. If not, everyone goes their own way again.”

This is the first coaching gig for the German since being released from prison last year after serving eight months for failure to pay off debt. He previously worked with current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. During his playing career, Becker won six Grand Slam singles titles.

The 55-year-old will now be tasked with turning things around for Rune as quickly as possible. Rune was on fire during the first half of 2023 but has a 1-8 match record since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals. He is, however, still ranked a solid sixth in the world.

“I felt myself and my game more today than I did in a while,” Rune wrote in an Instragram post following Wednesday’s Stockholm second-round loss to Miomir Kecmanovic. “So I feel confident now in making the last adjustments and finish the year strong 🦾”.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.