Boris Becker employs unorthodox move to help Holger Rune

Ewan West 28 Oct 2023 11:49 AM

Holger Rune off court

Tennis legend Boris Becker has seemingly made an unusual move to help his new charge Holger Rune focus on court, the Dane’s mother Aneke has suggested.

Rune’s mother revealed that Becker has influenced her son playing without a cap or necklaces at this week’s Swiss Indoors as the German adopted this approach when he played.

The world No 6 has notably moved away from his well-known on-court look of wearing a cap backwards during his first event with his new coach present.

Three-time Wimbledon champion Becker announced last week that he had started coaching Rune, having spent the week prior training with the 20-year-old.

The former world No 1 coached tennis legend Novak Djokovic between 2014 and 2016 – during which time the Serbian won six Grand Slam titles and 14 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments.

Rune has advanced to the semi-finals of the Swiss Indoors in Basel, where he will face Felix Auger-Aliassime on Saturday in a rematch of the 2022 final.

Prior to the ATP 500 tournament, where Becker has been in his players’ box, the Dane had lost 10 of his previous 11 matches during a difficult period.

In an interview with Danish publication B.T., Aneke Rune explained Becker was behind the world No 6 removing his cap and hinted it could be to help his concentration.

“Holger has tinkered with it every now and then, but Boris himself felt that way when he was playing, that the less things that interfered, the better. So no caps, necklaces and so on. Maybe Holger could nod in recognition to that,” said Aneke Rune.

During an interview with Tennis TV in Basel, Rune addressed his lack of headwear and did not mention that Becker was the reason for it.

“Yeah it’s a good question. It’s very hot here in the arena, and the second day I had to adjust the cap several times along the way because I was sweating a lot,” said the 20-year-old.

“So I thought: ‘Why not play without it and see what happens?’ I’m not superstitious, but it went very well. It’s good to let your hair air out if you want to have hair when you turn 50.”

Speaking on Tennis Channel, Paul Annacone – a former coach of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras – discussed the high-profile coaching appointment.

“Look, what the coaching situation is to me, it’s not always who it is, it’s the way they combine, so you really don’t know. This is, this should be a match made in heaven because of the way both of these guys go about their business,” assessed the former world No 12.

“But look, it’s a tricky situation right? Holger has a very strong parental figure in the picture. His mom has been there to help, she has been around helping him done a great job.

“Patrick Mouratoglou is now not in the picture, so there’s not a real simplistic kind of equation that you are gonna know if it’s gonna work or not until they do it for a bit.”

Rune currently occupies the eighth and final qualification spot in the Race to Turin to qualify for the ATP Finals next month.