Holger Rune, the new Bad Boy of tennis with the mirror of Alcaraz: from his five coaches in six months to the quarterfinals of Indian Wells

Rune Holger won In the early hours of this Thursday, one of those matches that raises the confidence bar of any tennis player to the max. He raised a batting average of match points in the second set against the American Taylor Fritz end up celebrating with scores of 2-6, 7-6 and 6-3, and reach the quarter-finals Indian Wells 1000 Masters for the first time in his career. The Russian waits Daniel Medvedev.

The 20-year-old Dane, just a semi-finalist at the ATP 500 in Acapulco with the return of Patrick Mouratoglu for his team, he is one of the leaders of the new generation of young talents called to take up the baton of Big Three. Since winning a Davis Cup match at age 14 in 2018 His leap onto the big tennis scene is awaited with great anticipation. The previous year he had been a semi-finalist in singles and doubles (along with Carlos Alcaraz) from the prestigious Les Petits As and continued to grow to win six Challengers by the age of 18. The last one was in April 2022, in San Remo, and in October of the same year he lifted the M1000 title in Paris against Novak Djokovic. And it jumped into the Top Ten. His career unfolded at the speed of a Formula 1.

However, staying in that place is usually more difficult than getting there and doubts have appeared. Now she is rediscovering the best of her tennis in the California desert and hopes to beat Medvedev, the world number 4. By the way, those doubts were logical given his age. But the ambition of the twenty-year-old, especially given the first successes of Alcaraz and the recent consecration of Jannik Sinner in Australia it stops you from seeing that there is a process to go through until you reach those big goals. But he needs results. And you need it now.

This is why five coaches have joined his team in the last six months: Lars Christensen, the one who accompanied him since he was six years old, his Mouratoglou, Boris Becker, Severin Luthi and Kenneth Carlsen. It also changed its representation agency: it went from Tennium, the company that owns the Argentine Open since 2017, to Tennis IMG, which continues the career of Alcaraz and figures such as Medvedev, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. As if 180° turns were the solution.

“I am obsessed with achieving success. “It’s about winning and nothing more.”he said for the documentary series Breaking point, from Netflix. Looks like one of the keys is there. Goals are becoming an obsession for Rune, of the tennis players with the best future projection together with Alcaraz and Sinner, and lead him to make burning decisions.

Rune and Alcaraz They were born a week apart, they went through the entire journey together from Juniors to professionalism and are united by that ambition which they make public in their declarations. However, in the way they approach tennis, they are not at all the same. While Carlitos accepted Sinner’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne and took it as motivation to do more, Holger He confessed that it hurts him that his classmates Next generation They are taking advantage of it a lot.

It boiled inside when the Spaniard lifted the Wimbledon title last year, judging by the images shown by Netflix in this miniseries that enters the intimacy of tennis players. It’s not that he had a personal problem with Murciano, but he wanted to be in that privileged place. He can’t stand it not being like this.

“He’s ambitious and has a really powerful inner fire, but sometimes it’s too much and it can backfire on him. He loses himself mentally and when that happens he puts himself in danger,” analyzed Patrick Mouratoglou, his old-new coach and who has worked with the likes of the Williams sisters, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Coco Gauff. Rune and Mouratoglou broke up in August 2023 and have now reunited.

He has an arrogant personality and a defiant attitude which led, for example, to having an argument with him Stan Wawrinka in the middle of the match in Paris Bercy. “You are earning a reputation that you will regret one day.” said the Swiss about the new one bad boy of the circuit, who on another occasion kicked his mother out of his cans in the middle of a match where things weren’t going well. “My goal is to help you control your emotions so that they help you and don’t harm you,” Mouratoglou said.

He has won a Masters 1000, remains firmly in the Top Ten and has reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros twice and once at Wimbledon at such a young age. And he succeeded when he was just 20 years old. This is no mean feat at all. AS, Why not trust what got you there? It’s that self-destructive personality that prevents it.

“The people I hire have to help me. Sometimes I think, ‘Why are you here?’ I don’t hire them just to sit on my desk.” cans. The question is, “Are you doing your job well?” Of course, in the end it’s my fault, but I don’t think Patrick is the best for me right now,” he had said in March 2023 and now Mouratoglou is back in his team. What are we doing, Holger?

In this context, the intervention of Aneke, her mother and former representative, it could be the key. We speak in the past tense because she is another of the people who left the Rune team. With the move from Tennium to IMG, she is no longer responsible for managing her son’s press and communications and she will appear sporadically at tournaments. “The plan was for me to step back gradually when he could start managing things on his own. And I think Holger has matured enormously,” he told Danish media BT Changes and more changes.

Mouratoglou’s return, if he believes in his method regardless of the results that arrive, could be the most favorable path to fulfill his destiny. At Indian Wells, for the moment, he is succeeding. The future, difficult to predict in your case, will tell.

Horacio Zeballos, to another doubles final

Horacio Zeballos and the Spaniard Marcel Granollers have qualified for the Indian Wells doubles final, which they will play this Friday against the winners of the duel that the Germans Kravetz and Puetz played this morning against the Dutch Koolhof and the Croatian Mektic.

The man from Mar del Plata and the Catalan beat the Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-4, 6-7 (7-9) and 10-8 in the first semi-final this Wednesday. They thus took revenge on those who had defeated them in the final of the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires and in the debut of the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro.

Zeballos has 20 career doubles titles, the last eight with Granollers. He hasn’t won a Slam but he has won six trophies in a Masters 1000, one of them at Indian Wells 2019 with Mektic.

Furthermore, this Thursday the quarter-finals of the men’s singles tournament will be played: Jiri Lehecka-Jannik Sinner, Tommy Paul (beat Luca Nardi 6-4 and 6-3, responsible for the elimination of Novak Djokovic)-Casper Ruud ( 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) and 6-4 for Gael Monfils), Alexander Zverev-Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev (6-4 and 6-4 for Grigor Dimitrov)-Rune.