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Boris Becker has told his new student Holger Rune that he will continue to fire harsh comments at the Dane to get the best out of him. Rune, who reached the quarter-finals of this year’s French Open and Wimbledon, appointed Becker as his new coach in October.
Rune reached this year’s ATP Finals but failed to make it to the last four after losing to Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner in the group stages. And following the player’s defeat to the Serbian, Becker came up with the ultimate put-down as he said: “Rune and Djokovic are like night and day. The biggest challenge is getting closer to Novak.”
Rune, who is currently ranked at No 8 in the world, will be looking to make his mark on the ATP Tour once again throughout 2024 when the new season gets underway. And Becker has insisted he has no plans to go easy on the 20-year-old.
“I have permission to say to him, ‘you really played like garbage today’,” Becker told Serbian outlet Sport. “And I’ll tell you why. Without it, I can’t work at all. He has to live with it and put up with it because it’s the only way to progress.”
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Becker is certainly a man who knows a thing or two about winning matches. The 56-year-old lifted six Grand Slam titles as a player and won Wimbledon on three occasions. And he has admitted Rune’s attitude needs to be right if he wants to reach the top of the game.
“We talked during the preparations about why he was losing matches”, the German added. “Is it because of his forehand or backhand, or maybe his stance? If your attitude isn’t right for you, then you shouldn’t be playing tennis at all. He improved from match to match, both his attitude and his style of play.”
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Rune suffered a downturn in form during the middle of last year as he was dumped out of Wimbledon in the first round before losing in the third round of the US Open. And, discussing his link-up with Becker after losing to Djokovic, the young ace explained: “It’s never easy to reverse a negative spiral like the one I went through and he helped me do it.
“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.”
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