The significant tennis comeback of Boris Becker will be confirmed when he accepts a full-time teaching position.
Following his confirmation that he has resumed full-time coaching, Boris Becker’s recovery and reintegration into the tennis community are now complete.
The 55-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion served eight months of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence in April 2022 for concealing £2.5 million in assets and loans to avoid paying debts.
The German tennis legend had a precipitous fall from grace and faced an uncertain future when he was released from prison with hopes of returning to the top division of tennis.
Becker regained his voice in the game after taking on a punditry role with Eurosport. He has since stated that he has successfully made a full-time return to tennis, having taken up the position of coach for world No. 6 Holger Rune.
In an exclusive interview with Eurosport Germany’s podcast, Becker said, “I can confirm that I am Holger Rune’s coach.”
The fact that he inquired pleases me a little. The communication has been going on for a while. It was an excellent fit.
“I have always been interested in Holger because of his passion and attitude on the tennis court, and my schedule permits it.
Then Holger asked me to come to Monte-Carlo for a training week. There, I also had a lengthy conversation with his performance coach, Lapo Becherini, and mother, Aneke.
Holger is now our responsibility, the three of us. Unfortunately, due to already scheduled appointments, I will not be able to attend the competition in Stockholm this week.
But at the latest, I’ll be in Basel. From there, I’ll play Paris-Bercy with Holger in the hopes of helping him go to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. That is the main objective and the work at hand.
Although Rune’s placement in the top ten of the ATP rankings attests to his enormous potential, he has failed to regain his best form in 2023, even though he finished the previous year well by defeating Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters final.
He will lose a lot of ranking points from his record in the upcoming weeks as a result of his triumph in Paris, his success in the ATP 250 event in Stockholm, and his run to the Basel final the previous year.
In order to stay in the top 10 of the rankings, Rune will thus need Becker to find his form again, but Becker believes the 20-year-old Dane still has a lot more to give.
“Holger requires polishing; he is a rough diamond. He continued, “I enjoy his emotional outbursts.
“I’ve already coached Novak Djokovic, who was occasionally not entirely himself on the court, but that’s acceptable.
How soon do you find your way back into the match is the question. Have you regained focus? Winning the match is more important in the end than trying to get your mother to leave the bleachers.
I’m passionate about tennis, so when one of the top 20-year-olds in the world approaches me to coach him, I believe that anyone who declines has little interest in the game.
Naturally, attitude is everything, even though this is such an obvious statement. However, it is the primary factor in whether tennis matches are won or lost.
For me, the question is: Why, for instance, would Holger travel to China? Is the goal only to win the competition or the first round? Is it in order to earn points?
“That needs to be talked about, and the purpose needs to be made very apparent. I can think of a few ways to make it better. I have some notion of where it all begins—attitude, mindset, and psyche.
“Holger was about 15 or 16 years old when we first met. That was back when I was still Novak Djokovic’s coach at the ATP Finals. Our training buddy was Holger.
I have known him and his mother for that amount of time. We’ve continued to talk all along. And now, “Can you help me?” was the inquiry.
“Yes, let me visit you in Monte-Carlo,” was my response. He then discussed the remainder of the year. I was fine with that, since it gave me more time to travel to Basel, Paris, and, if we manage, Turin.
“There’s no use in signing a two-year contract now when you’ve just been cooperating for a week,” Becker, who is presently prohibited from entering the UK due to the conditions of his release from jail, said when asked if their collaboration will continue into the upcoming season.
“After that, we’ll take a seat and discuss the tournaments’ success, his enjoyment of them, and my opinion of them.
“Now, we’re going to compete in these three events. After that, we’ll determine whether our collaboration has merit and whether to continue working together into 2024, or if it was a wonderful experience, we’ll part ways.
We must be in close contact since I can only assist him if I am aware of his condition. That holds true in his personal life as well as on the field. Is he concerned? Is he acting irrationally?
All of this affects how well he does in training. I must be aware of the causes. Tennis psychologists are usually required to be tennis coaches.
