"They hired another coach.... Holger Rune said 'Okay, I'll stop playing'" - Mother Aneke revisits Dane's signature stubbornness as a child
Holger Rune once refused to train under a newly-hired coach at his local club in Denmark, according to his mother Aneke. Rune was only seven years old at the time of the incident.
In recent years, the Dane's dissatisfaction with coaches, even the most high-profile ones, has become public knowledge. In September 2023, Rune decided to part with Patrick Mouratoglou despite the iconic coach's undeniable impact on his fledgling career. Mouratoglou's part-time association with Rune had yielded a Paris Masters triumph in 2022 and a run to the final of the 2023 Rome Masters.
Holger Rune's mother Aneke, his manager and one of the pillars of the youngster's team, recently spoke about the incident from her son's childhood in an interview with ATPTour.com. Back then, Rune was being trained by Lars Christensen, who has also been a crucial part of the young Dane's coaching team.
"They hired another coach at the club and Holger was watching him. There were a lot of kids on the court and there were two coaches and the other coach was supposed to take the young kids (including Rune)," she said.
Rune, fearing that his progress would be hampered if Christensen didn't coach him, made his opinion on the matter crystal clear to Aneke.
"The plan was this new guy should take over all the small kids. Holger went to me and said, 'I don't want to have this guy as my trainer'," she said.
When Aneke tried to reason with her seven-year-old son, he fired back with an ultimatum.
"Holger said, 'Okay that's fine, then I'll stop playing'," she added.
Aneke's revelation comes merely a day after Holger Rune's decision to part ways with Severin Luthi
In December 2023, Rune began his association with Severin Luthi, who became the third coach in Rune's camp alongside Boris Becker and Kenneth Carlsen. Luthi is a distinguished coach who toured with Roger Federer between 2007 and 2022.
However, despite Luthi's credentials, Rune was reportedly unhappy with his lack of availability. Unable to resolve the scheduling conflict, Rune believed the best foot forward would involve parting ways with Luthi, and that's exactly what he did. Rune's mother Aneke made the split public to Ekstra Bladet.
"I just want to inform you that from now on Holger will only have Boris and Kenneth in his coaching staff. Don't want to make a big deal out of it, but the timing with Severin was clearly not right," she said.
For the time being, Holger Rune is sticking to Boris Becker and Kenneth Carlsen as his coaching team.