Holger Rune's mother, Aneke Rune, has shed light on the growing discourse about her son abandoning her customary hat while playing tennis matches.
Those watching the Swiss Indoors have noticed that Holger Rune is playing without an important piece of apparel that has defined his look on the court - a backward cap. Having lost 10 of his last 11 matches, Rune was forced to press the reset button, and that involved ditching his signature hat.
It served as a good omen as Rune won his opening match against Miomir Kecmanovic (in which he took it off and has not worn since), before backing up that success with a dominant victory over Sebastian Baez. It was the first time he had won back-to-back matches on tour since early July at Wimbledon.
Rune gave an interesting admission about making such changes when fans curiously wanted to know. The Dane explained that it was too hot inside St. Jakobshalle arena and was sweating too much. He continued by making a bizarre claim that he wanted to retain his hair by the time he was 50, so some fresh air helps.
But according to his mother, Aneke, who is in Basel following her son's cause, it is new coach Boris Becker who has instilled the latest changes. The German tennis great answered Rune's call to take over coaching duties as Patrick Mouratoglou's successor and appears to make his impact loud in even subtle changes.
"Holger has tinkered with it every now and then, but Boris himself felt that way when he was playing, that the less things that interfered, the better. So no caps, necklaces, and so on. Maybe Holger could nod in recognition to that."
Becker and Rune are expected to work with each other until the end of the season. The target for the 20-year-old in the short term is to qualify for the ATP Finals, and that can only happen by winning as many matches as possible in the remaining two tournaments before Turin.
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