The current coach of Simona Halep, Patrick Mouratoglou, will work with rising star Holger Rune for the rest of 2022 until Halep gets back to the tennis courts.
Rune is one of the most talented tennis players in the world who might challenge for Grand Slams in the future. Even this early in his career, Rune has already shown how good of a tennis player he can be.
Now, he will be working with one of the most prominent coaches in the world, Patrick Mouratoglou. The French coach carved out a name for himself as the longtime coach of Serena Williams, helping her further her iconic legacy.
Besides coaching Williams, Mouratoglou also runs an academy in the South of France near Nice where some prominent tennis players honed their skills. Players like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Coco Gauff attended his academy, as did Rune, who will now be his main protege.
The move comes after Halep called time early on her 2022 season. She won’t play again because of nose surgery to address some breathing issues that have plagued her for a while.
She will take time to recover from that for the rest of 2022 and then return to tennis next year in 2023. That means that Mouratoglou has time until next year when it comes to his commitments to Halep.
She probably told him that he could find some other engagement until she came back, and he did that with Rune. The coach will accompany him in the final weeks of the season for events in Stockholm, Basel, Paris, and the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan. Mouratoglou confirmed it on Instagram.
"While Simona Halep is taking time to recover and is away from the game, she encouraged me to seek a new collaboration. Today, I’m pleased to announce that I will officially be joining the team of Holger Rune. Together, we’ll compete in four tournaments and prepare in the winter season for 2023."