"I literally came back from the abyss" - Holger Rune hails new coach Boris Becker for rescuing him from "negative spiral"

World No. 10 Holger Rune has thanked his coach Boris Becker for helping him break out of a 'negative spiral' where he was continuously losing matches.

Rune and Becker started working together two weeks ago. The change in the Dane's coaching team came after he parted ways with Serena Williams' ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou, following his first-round exit at the 2023 US Open.

Following that, the 20-year-old had a lot of challenges on the ATP tour, falling in the fourth and second rounds of the China Open and Shanghai Masters, respectively. He could not defend his Stockholm Open title as well, losing to Miomir Kecmanovic in his opening-round match.

However, things started to look up for Holger Rune during his first tournament with new coach Boris Becker at the Swiss Indoors Basel. He reached the semifinals but faced defeat from the eventual champion, Felix Auger-Aliassime.

This was followed by a quarterfinal appearance at the recently concluded Paris Masters where Rune lost to Novak Djokovic and could not defend his title. But his performance remained impressive throughout the tournament.

Holger Rune has now taken a moment to express his gratitude to Boris Becker for the drastic improvement in his performance. He claimed that the six-time Grand Slam champion helped him in reversing his 'negative spiral' of match-losing streaks.

"It is never easy to reverse a negative spiral like the one I went through in the past months. Boris helped me a lot in this. I literally came back from the abyss, from a period in which I was constantly losing matches in the first round," he told Sportklub.

The former French Open and Wimbledon quarterfinalist also said that if it hadn't been for his 'great game' under Becker, he would have fallen to Djokovic in straight sets at Bercy. The eventual score was 5-7, 7-6(3), 4-6.

"If I had played against him [Novak Djokovic] a few weeks ago, I would have lost in two sets. And this is how I played a great game in which I showed that I am close to the maximum. That best shows how far I've come," Holger Rune said.

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Holger Rune aims to beat Novak Djokovic in the ATP Finals

Novak Djokovic (L) and Holger Rune pictured at the 2022 Paris Masters

Holger Rune continued his discussion of his Paris Masters quarterfinal match against Novak Djokovic, stating that he should have done things differently but 'lacked courage' at times.

Interestingly, the two met in the 2022 edition of the year's last Masters 1000 tournament, with the Dane defeating the 24-time Grand Slam champion to claim his maiden Masters title.

"I should have done some things differently, but I lacked courage in certain moments. The match was similar to last year, although I think I was more passive in some periods. On the other hand, maybe he forced me into passivity," Holger Rune said.

The 20-year-old now aims to beat Djokovic in the ATP Finals, which will be held in Turin, Italy, from November 12 to 19.

"Now I am waiting for the analysis of what was done in Bercy in order to return even stronger to the field. Maybe I will beat Novak in Turin," he said.