Holger Rune was once considered the prime candidate to make it into the new ‘Big Three’ of tennis after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. That doesn’t seem to be the case now, as Rune’s career trajectory over the last 18 months has run parallel to his changes in coaches. This is something that has surprised Serena Williams’ childhood coach, Rick Macci.
In an exclusive interview with The SportsRush, Macci gave his two cents on Rune’s struggles while trying to explain the art of coaching in the modern sport. The American tennis icon feels that at a professional level, it depends on the player on how much coaching they require to succeed.
Macci hinted that Rune was leaning more toward stupidity in this matter since it is clearly affecting his game negatively. He was quoted as saying,
“Rune has changed coaches just like the way you and I change socks. But if he isn’t happy with a coach, then he should do what we wants. There is more than what meets the eye.
“Federer was No.1 for a long time, he didn’t have a coach. (But) There’s a fine line between courage and stupidity.
“Men’s tennis is more brutal, women’s tennis is flexible because it’s not as physical.”
The Dane was growing reasonably well under Patrick Mouratoglou, who is Serena Williams’ ex-coach. It was poor form though, which made Rune switch from Mouratoglou to Boris Becker towards the end of the last season. Becker’s credentials of having coached Novak Djokovic successfully should have elevated Rune’s game.
Instead, Rune parted ways with the German legend after merely three months of partnership. Even though the 2022 Paris Masters champion brought Mouratoglou back into his team for most of 2024, he called it off with him again a few months ago.
According to Macci, Rune could find it challenging if he continues changing coaches at the same rate. However, it is interesting that he took Roger Federer’s name as someone Rune could be inspired from.
Will Rune follow Federer, the trailblazer of doing well without a coach?
Between 2004 and 2005, Federer had won five Grand Slams. Coupled with the 2007- 2009 period, when he won an additional six Majors, the Swiss legend did not have a designated head coach as such. Macci was seemingly referring to this particular period.
Even then, Federer had many coaches, namely Peter Carter, Peter Lundgren, Tony Roche, Paul Annacone, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Ljubicic, throughout his 24-year career. The 20-time Grand Slam champion’s specialty is that he was an ardent student of the game even when he became a superstar and, equally, when he started winning less toward the end.
This interesting dichotomy offers Rune valuable lessons to learn from. Currently, he is working with Kenneth Carlsen, his childhood coach from Denmark itself. Rune could use this time with him to understand his own game and how he can improve his training to become self-reliant when required.
But tennis is now set to ditch the tradition of coaches not providing coaching on the court. The decision has been criticized by many pro players and coaches, including Annacone himself rather ironically. Annacone is currently coaching Taylor Fritz and is of the firm belief that the sport is about a player thinking and acting on their feet, while the coach is always more behind the scenes.
Annacone was quoted as saying in an interview with Tennis Channel recently,
“We need to celebrate our sport, it’s one person against one person – in doubles, it’s two against two. There’s no other sport where it’s solely about you, you cannot hide, you have to figure it out, you’ve got to be a better thinker on the court and understand what’s going on.
“I don’t think it should be about us coaches, it’s got to be about the players. My job as a coach is to give the players the tools so that they can think in the most pressure-packed situations and figure it out.
“It’s not for me to tell them what to do at that moment, that’s for practice so that when you get out there they can figure it out and they either do it or they don’t.”
Despite a lot of coaching success after having a decent playing career, Annacone is considered to be lucky to have Federer as his pupil since ‘anybody could have coached someone like him’ as per a school of thought in the tennis world. But coaching is a skill that everybody can’t master, and Macci knows that well too.
When it comes to Rune, the probable solution here is to stick with one coach for longer than 12-18 months at least, no matter the results. Some also forget that the Dane is just 21 and many players do not mature by that age in professional sports. It might take one outstanding result for him to get back on track, making the upcoming 2025 season a very crucial one in his career.
