Holger Rune jumps to Boris Becker’s defence and insists his criminal conviction is not his concern

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Holger Rune defends Boris Becker
Holger Rune defends Boris Becker

Holger Rune made a bold move when he brought Boris Becker back into the tennis fold as his coach a few months ago and now he has leapt to the defence of the tennis icon who spent time in an English jail after a fraud conviction.

The three-time Wimbledon champion, 55, was jailed for two and a half years in April 2022 for hiding £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying debts, serving eight months.

He made a return to tennis as a pundit with Eurosport, but it was Rune’s move to hire him as a coach that confirmed he was fully back in the tennis fold.

Becker enjoyed great success as Novak Djokovic’s coach and has also worked with other top players, but it has now been confirmed that he will continue to work with Becker heading into 2023.

Speaking at London ExCeL Arena as he played in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown Grand Final, Rune offered up a strong defence of his decision to hire Becker and insisted his criminal past is not his concern now.

“I know many players that really like him. So do I,” said Rune. “Whatever he’s doing off the court, I don’t need to have an opinion on that because I hired him to coach me, not to do anything else.

“He’s a great guy. He’s a really good man. I think if people mistake him for that, it’s totally wrong because he has a great heart and he’s a great coach.

“He helped me a lot during because I had the tough middle of the season with everything so it was needed that he came and we start improving again, and he’s a great guy, a great coach.

“We did some good work, and proper training, and I’m excited for the future.

“It’s more mental and tactical than technical, I would say. Of course, he has a few tips, especially on the serve. He had a great serve himself but it’s a lot of psychological.”

Becker recently confirmed he will continue to work with Rune heading into 2024 and Rune is excited by what the German is bringing to his game.

“We’re continuing together in. We had two weeks pre-season in Monaco where he was there, we did some good work, proper training, and I’m excited for the future,” he confirmed.

“He is experienced, I am less experienced and maybe more eager to play. It is about scheduling right, but for now, we are practising and setting our goals. We will work our scheduling from there.”

Rune also confirmed he has looked back at some of Becker’s greatest moments on the court, as he admitted he was impressed by the displays of the three-time Wimbledon champion.

That is a very different verdict than Nick Kyrgios offered up earlier this week, as he got into a Twitter spat with Becker after claiming the tennis he played in the 1980s and 90s was ‘very slow’.

“I watched before we started some highlights of him and Sampras in Berlin,” said Rune.

“Incredible tennis and they still play like real tennis like you do nowadays. They are hitting the shots like we do almost, just more to the net, more serve and volley, but I think it’s exciting, it’s still an effective way to play.”

Becker is currently banned from entering the UK under the terms of his release from a British prison, which would mean he could not travel with Rune to Wimbledon or any UK grass court tournaments next summer.

Yet the 20-year-old sidestepped questions on that issue as he added: “I have no answer to that right now.”

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