Boris Becker: “The tennis community made it very easy for me to re-establish myself”

Boris Becker returned to tennis with a bang last month when he was announced as the new coach of Holger Rune.

The German, who spent eight months in a UK prison for hiding assets from creditors, had an instant impact with Rune, helping him to the semi-finals in Basel in their first tournament together, after a difficult summer for the Dane.

The six-time Grand Slam champion and former world No 1 will continue to coach Rune in 2024 and the German has spoken of how he was welcomed back into the tennis world.

“When I arrived in Basel, the tournament director who gave me my first wildcard in 1984 embraced me,” Becker told Eurosport Germany’s tennis podcast ‘Das Gelbe vom Ball’. “I immediately felt at home. The Players’ Lounge is the same, the court is the same and even the hotel is the same, even if it has a new name now.

“The tennis community really made it very easy for me to re-establish myself here – starting with Holger, of course, who really wanted me. In Paris, Cedric Pioline, who I must have played against 15 times, greeted me warmly and asked: ‘Where have you been for so long? We’ve missed you!’ That was really great for me personally.”

Becker said he had been impressed by Rune’s spirit in their first tournament together.

“The start was very intense because Holger’s participation at the ATP Finals in Turin was on the line,” he said. “To put it clearly, he had a very bad summer (he lost his first match in six out of seven events). With a set and a break down in the first round in Basel, everyone thought it would be another difficult one. But he showed fighting qualities and was keen to win.

“We discussed in the preparation why he had lost the matches. Was it because of his forehand or backhand or was it because of his attitude? If your attitude isn’t right, you don’t really need to play tennis. It got better from match to match – his attitude anyway, but also his style of play. He lost the semi-final in Basel outright. That wasn’t a good match either.”

Honest discussion helped things improve

Becker said an honest and open discussion among the team helped things between himself and Rune.

“On the train journey from Basel to Paris, there was an internal manoeuvre critique in a crowded TGV,” he said. “That has to be allowed and that’s why I asked to be able to tell my players the truth, even if it sometimes hurts. Things were much better again in Paris.”

Becker said he was looking forward to 2024 but said he was no more or less important than any member of the Rune team.

“I may be the head coach, but I’m just as important as our analyst Mike James and fitness coach Lapo Becherini,” he said. “And in any case, Aneke (Rune) is the mum of the company – nothing works without her!

“For an outsider who has never played tennis, she has an incredible understanding of tennis. And above all, she knows what’s good for her son. So I want to emphasise that once again: It’s a team effort between Aneke, Lapo, MJ and myself.”

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