Boris Becker is a “really good man” with a “great heart”, Danish star Holger Rune has insisted. The world No.8 gave the former Grand Slam champion his first job back in coaching in October following the German’s conviction for fraud. After enjoying an immediate upturn in form, Rune has now decided to extend the deal into 2024.
But Becker, 56, cannot currently enter the UK or work at Wimbledon after serving eight months of a two-and-a-half year prison sentence handed down to him in April 2022 before he was deported last December.
He will have to appeal against his 10-year travel ban from the UK if he wants to go back to SW19.
But Rune, who is competing at the UTS Grand Final at the London ExCel this weekend, said: “He has helped me a lot during this this time, because I had the tough middle of the season with everything so it was needed that he came and we start improving again, and he’s a great guy, a great coach.
“Are people in tennis worried that he was convicted? I don’t know. I know many players that really like him. So do I. Whatever he’s doing off the court, I don’t need to have an opinion on that because I hired him to coach me, not to do anything else.
“He’s a great guy. He’s a really good man. I think if people mistake him from that, it’s totally wrong, because he has a great heart and he’s a great coach.
“We’re continuing. We had two weeks pre-season in Monaco where he was there, we did some good work, proper training, and I’m excited for the future.”
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Asked about how his coaching arrangement would work at Wimbledon if Becker is not allowed into the country, Rune said: “I have no answer to that right now.”
Rune, currently ranked eighth in the world, was speaking ahead of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown event in London, which begins later this afternoon and ends on Sunday.
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