Holger Rune was working with Patrick Mouratoglou for a while but, as of recently, returned to his old set-up without the French coach.
Rune and Mouratoglou had been familiar with each other before starting to work together because the Danish player used the facilities of his academy. That's not uncommon, as players like Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and even Novak Djokovic use them regularly for preparations.
Mouratoglou was initially tied to Simona Halep contractually, but since she was suspended from tennis, the Dane jumped it, and it worked out well initially. He won the Paris Masters under him and became a Top 10 player on the ATP Tour.
Eventually, though, the dynamic stopped working for Rune, who wanted to return to his coach to get back to his best level. As he explained in a recent interview, he's comfortable with his former coach, Lars Christensen, as he knows him best.
The move saw Rune return to stability as he could finally focus on tennis again and he talked about it to TennisTV ahead of the 2023 Shanghai Masters.
I've had ups and downs, and then the coaching situation and everything, but I've had more stability so far, and it's good. I mean, it's important as an athlete, when you have to perform that, everything around you is calm. And I'm trying to do as good as I can.
After explaining that the situation around him is now calmer, the young Dane also explained why he thinks it's better for him to work with Christensen.
I think that I've been with Lars for so many years. And I think he knows me very well and he knows when I'm at my best level. So for him, it's more simple, I think because he knows me this well, than others to be like, I know when you're at your best and how to kind of help you to push to be at the best level, you can be in this. We've been having some good practices at home before China, so hopefully. I can get back to my best level.