Rune crashed out of the Stockholm Open in his opening match on Wednesday. The top seed and defending champion at the tournament, he lasted an hour and 44 minutes on court as he lost to Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6(3) 6-2.
The match also marked Rune’s first since he started working with Becker after the retired tennis star joined him at the Monte Carlo Country Club for a training week. The 20-year-old shared some snaps of Becker with his team and later addressed their link-up though did not reveal whether the German was officially joining his coaching camp.
“It was a really good week of training,” Rune told TV2. “I have known Boris for a long time. He follows tennis a lot in general and he has written to me a few times. Also when I was a little younger, he gave me some tips and tricks. There he showed that he supports me.”
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Rune’s agent and mother Aneke also revealed that Becker had been in daily contact with her son since he left Monaco to travel to the Stockholm Open. But their partnership may need some more time before Becker’s influence can rub off on Rune’s results following his immediate exit from this week’s tournament.
A six-time Grand Slam champion, Becker also has a stellar CV when it comes to being a tennis coach. The 55-year-old worked with Djokovic from late 2013 to late 2016 where he guided the Serb to six of his 24 Major titles, including his long-awaited first French Open crown.
The retired former world No 1 still has a good relationship with Djokovic but he will be hoping that he can achieve similar success with his next coaching venture if he ends up working with Rune long-term. The 20-year-old already has a winning record against the 24-time Grand Slam champion and could be one of the youngsters to topple Djokovic.
