Rune's Coaching Chaos Continues As He Adds Christensen To Team For Third Time
ATP
Holger Rune has made an extraordinary number of coaching changes for a young player, and that trend continued ahead of his appearance at the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia.
The Six Kings Slam is a financially lucrative exhibition that takes place from October 16th to 19th and involves Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Rune.
Having such high-profile names involved in the event means it would have attracted much attention anyway, but Rafael Nadal's retirement announcement has added additional attention to the exhibition.
Nadal will end his career at the Davis Cup Finals next month. The Six Kings Slam could be his penultimate tournament before retirement since the Spaniard may not take a wild card for the upcoming Paris Masters, an event he has never won.
While there has been much excitement on social media about the Six Kings Slam, some fans have questioned Rune's involvement at the tournament, arguing his achievements do not stack up against the other three.
Rune's talent means the tone of many of those critiques is overly harsh. However, he has struggled throughout much of 2024, not consistently showing the ability that makes the 21-year-old a feared opponent at his best.
The constant changes in Rune's coaching team during the last two years have probably not helped. It is pretty astounding how many times the Dane has hired, fired, and brought back team members throughout that time.
Rune hired Serena Williams' former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who now works with Naomi Osaka, in the summer of 2022. The Frenchman enjoyed success with Williams but also played a key role in Simona Halep's suspension for taking a banned substance.
The two-time French Open quarterfinalist then switched between Lars Christensen and Mouratoglou throughout much of 2023. For example, Christensen worked with Rune at Wimbledon, but Mouratoglou was present at the US Open.
Rune made Christensen his sole coach in September 2023 and added three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker to work with him in October before removing Christensen again in November. Severin Luthi was added to partner with Becker for 2024.
Becker and Luthi were gone by the start of February, and Mouratoglou was brought back again. Kenneth Carlsen was added to the team, with Mouratoglou supposed to be the leading coach at this stage.
However, Rune and Mouratoglou ended their collaboration once again on July 29th. Carlsen worked as the Dane's sole coach for a few months before Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh was added to the 21-year-old's team for the Asian swing.
Many players go their entire careers without that many coaching changes, but all that chaos in Rune's team was over two years. Incredibly, he has now brought back one of the coaches from that period for the third time.
Christensen will work with Rune once again at the Six Kings Slam as revealed by Sport TV2. Although the move will raise eyebrows, both men expressed happiness, with Rune saying Christensen had helped his serve during recent training sessions.
"I am happy to work with Lars again. We have known each other for many years and have developed our very own tennis language together. During the past month, I have trained a few times with Lars when I have been in Denmark, and it has, among other things, had a really good effect on my serve."— Rune on Christensen
"I have known Holger since he was a little boy with big dreams. Now I look forward to working with him again and working hard to achieve the ambitious goals we both have on his behalf. Everyone knows Holger's huge potential, and his dedication and passion is something completely unique, which it is a privilege to work with as a coach."— Christensen on Rune
