Mouratoglou on coaching Rune: “Players listen to you if you deserve it”

Patrick Mouratoglou spoke to US television about his work with Holger Rune

Holger Rune and Patrick Mouratoglou (Antoine Couvercelle/Panoramic)

March 15, 2024

If you haven’t been keeping up with Holger Rune’s latest news, it’s been a bit hectic. Having parted company last year with Lars Christensen and Patrick Mouratoglou, the pair of coaches with whom he had set out to conquer his first Masters 1000 title in Bercy at the end of 2022, the young Dane had started the 2024 season with another hybrid team made up of Boris Becker, the former world No 1, and Séverin Lüthi, Roger Federer’s former coach.

But the latter only stayed with him for a few weeks, leaving shortly after the Australian Open, due to disagreements over the terms of their mission.

So it’s no wonder that Mouratoglou’s latest coaching reunion with Rune has created a great deal of interest and chatter.

“He’s been at the academy since he’s 13 and he’s still an Academy player, he’s working with us,” Mouratoglou told Tennis Majors. “So I was not directly working with him. He was working first with Boris [Becker] and then Severin Luthi came in. But as a player from my academy, and we have this relationship, we stayed in touch. We were talking, of course I was watching all these matches.

“I didn’t want to step on the feet of any coach, so I was not giving any advice. But throughout this period, he kept telling me that he was sad that it was over and that he felt I was the right coach for him. So I felt something was not achieved completely.”

The Frenchman spoke more about it on Tennis Channel during Indian Wells.

Describing Rune as both intense and super-sweet, Mouratoglou added: “He’s super ambitious. That’s great for us as coaches – to have players who want to do the best they can all the time.

“Two times we split, but he called me back and I’m happy to come back because I believe in him a lot and I like him.”

Referring back to his time working with 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, he talked about the attitude of champions – and he also talked about his own approach to coaching.

“When I work with a player, I’m here all the time. I don’t want to miss weeks,” he said.

“Players listen to you if you deserve to be listened to. You have to create that environment with them that they feel confident, they trust you, and that they want to learn from you. I’m not teaching lessons, I never do, I don’t like it, but they want to listen to you, and I want to listen to them more than they listen to me always, because it’s much better when it comes from them, when they realise by themselves and they feel they’ve decided something.”

Mouratoglou eyes areas of improvement for rune

As for Rune, Mouratoglou already has a plan in place.

“There are a lot of things to develop. But I cannot say everything. Even for the top players, they still always have margins for improvement.

“I know it sounds weird. But Serena wanted to improve all the time, all the time. She was watching videos on YouTube and coming to me and saying, ‘Oh, I’ve seen this player, he can do that, I want to do it better.’ So that’s a mindset.

“But very small details can make huge differences at that level. So the details are the most important things to look at and to work on.

“And yes, Holger likes to practise. He wants to improve all the time. I don’t have to pull him off because I also like to spend time on the court.”