By dint of seeing Patrick Mouratoglou take his place in his box at each of his matches, one would think that the Frenchman is still the coach of Holger Rune. The young Dane made a point on this subject after his victory against Fabio Fognini in Rome on Monday.
Rarely has the coach of a player who is no longer officially coach spent so much time with the player in question. You will have understood it: the coach we are talking about is Patrick Mouratoglou (52 years old) and the player, Holger Rune. The Frenchman had taken the young Dane under his wing at the same time as his first title in a Masters 1000, on November 6 at Bercy. However, on April 3, the two men announced the end of their collaboration. The current world number 7 then remained on a series of results far from the end of the season, with in particular an elimination in the 2nd round in Indian Wells and another poor performance, in stride, in Miami.
However, since he is supposedly no longer the coach of Rune, Mouratoglou continues to show himself alongside the 20-year-old Danish prodigy. This had been the case in Monte-Carlo, where the coach of Simona Halep who still does not know if he will one day resume service alongside the Romanian, suspended for doping, had accompanied the finalist of the tournament all week. In Munich (final victory for Rune, who thus kept his trophy), Madrid (defeat in the 2nd round) and in Rome this week, the same thing.
Has Mouratoglou replaced Christensen, who has been missing for a month?
And when Serena Williams’ former mentor isn’t caught giving the Dane behind-the-scenes advice before or after a match (as was the case in the Principality), he seems to be back to his boxing habits. of the one who had taken down in turn at the Accor Arena Wawrinka, Hurkacz, Rublev, Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime and Djokovic and who again recently defended himself from being a “bad boy”. It is therefore difficult to imagine that Mouratoglou has not become his coach again. Or that their common history never ended. Monday, after his victory against Fognini, the interested party took a few seconds to make a point at this level.
“I’m still part of his academy and whenever I need help he’s there. He’s here with me this week, with my physical trainer, my mother and the analyst,” Rune explained, adding that he has the “perfect team” and is “very happy with it”. A “perfect team” which no longer belongs to its historic coach Lars Christensen, who disappeared from the Dane’s team for almost a month. From there to think that Mouratoglou, much appreciated by the young player, replaced him, there is perhaps only one step…
