Holger Rune on his return to form: “Becker helped me”

He may not yet be the best Holger Rune, the man who had a stratospheric end to the 2022 season by winning the Rolex Paris Masters against Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in the quarter-finals at Bercy on Friday evening (7-5, 6-7, 6-4). But he has certainly become an excellent Rune once again.

The Dane confirmed what he had already shown the previous week in Basel (semi-finalist against Felix Auger-Aliassime), namely that he had finally found a good dynamic after a very complicated period marked by a back injury, turmoil in his structure and just one small victory in three months, since his quarter-final at Wimbledon.

Rune: “I’ve come back from almost nowhere”

Coached since mid-October by Boris Becker, who took over from Lars Christensen at his bedside, Holger Rune credits the former German legend with much of the credit for his new-found momentum. “It’s never easy to reverse a negative spiral like the one I went through, and he helped me do it,” the world No 7 told reporters.

“I’ve come back from almost nowhere, from a period where I was losing all the time in the first round to a big match like this against Novak, close to my best level. Two months ago, I would certainly have lost this match in two sets. It just goes to show how far I’ve come.

I LOVE THE WAY HE SUPPORTS HIS PLAYER, IT WAS THE SAME WITH ME.

Novak Djokovic, on Boris Becker

“I lacked a bit of courage at times”

He came up just short of repeating his feat of last year, when he overcame the Serb to win his first Masters 1,000 title at the age of 19, at the end of a breathtaking final. “It was a similar battle to last year, except that I was a little too passive this time,” admitted the young Dane. “I could have done a few things differently, I lacked a bit of courage at times. Maybe it was also him who made me more passive. Now I have to analyse all that so that I can come back stronger and try to beat him in Turin (at the ATP Finals).”

Becker was Novak Djokovic’s coach between 2013 and 2016, during which time he won six Grand Slam titles. The two men have remained close, and the Serb was not angry with ‘Boom Boom’ for not sparing his gestures and words of encouragement to his new protégé. “I love the way he supports his player, it was the same with me a few years ago,” he declared, a few days after describing Rune’s choice of Becker as “excellent”.

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