Holger Rune faced two potentially career-altering decisions within a span of a few days, ending his short-term association with coaches Severin Luthi and Boris Becker.
Luthi, a longtime confidant and former coach of Roger Federer, joined Rune's camp in the middle of December last year. At the time, German great Boris Becker had already been confirmed as Rune's permanent coach after a successful stint as interim in the autumn.
But just 41 days later, Rune and Luthi parted company, a decision that was scarcely believable to the tennis world. And less than a week later, Becker followed the Swiss out of the Dane's door. The 20-year-old will now work with Kenneth Carlsen, who helped fill the void when Rune's two prominent coaches missed the opening week of the new season.
In a recent interview on Tennis Channel, former British player Mark Petchey shared his honest thoughts about the puzzling situation. Petchey argued that before committing to coach a player, the workaround on schedule is discussed beforehand, so it came as a shock that both coaches left for the same reason - which was their inability to trade their time.
"He's losing coaches quicker than I am losing hair follicles (laughing). I mean I don't really understand what's going on here. He does have Kenneth Carlson still in his in his camp, so he still does have a coach at the moment."
"But one of the weirdest things about the whole thing is that I don't have enough time to commit to the project, which is what Severin and Boris have both suddenly come out and said."
"If you've ever been in this situation where you've gone to coach a player, one of the first conversations you have is how much time you have to give, so I don't know if everyone's trying to cover up for another underlying reason which is what it feels like."
Rune, ranked 7th in the world rankings, is determined to become the world's top-ranked player and win a Grand Slam in the near future. In bringing Becker and Luthi on board, he looked to be on the right track to achieve both goals.
Even Petchey was convinced that they were the "perfect fit" despite his reservations about a potential clash of personalities of appointing two high-profile coaches.
But because of Luthi's admiration of Becker as a player, that was not expected to be a hurdle while working together. Petchey now believes Rune's future is tough to predict.
"Severin loved Boris as a player that was one of his favorite players. So it's seemed like the perfect fit because everyone was going to get on because that's also, you know what you're looking to try and guard against is a clash of personalities. Honestly, you can't have two better people, really, in terms of an IQ for tennis. Where is he going to go from here?"
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