Novak Djokovic admitted that he “expected” to see Boris Becker on his feet spurring on Holger Rune as he faced the Dane at the Rolex Paris Masters. Becker previously worked with Djokovic but is now coaching the world No 7 and could be heard telling his charge about a weakness from his opponent’s side during the match. Djokovic was able to avenge his previous losses to Rune, however, coming through 7-5 6-7(3) 6-4.
Djokovic came up against his old coach and good friend Becker on Friday night as he faced Rune for the first time since the 20-year-old started working with the six-time Major champion. Ahead of the tournament, the Serb confessed that it wouldn’t be “that nice or comfortable” seeing the German in his rival’s box when they did meet.
But he was able to get through it in a thrilling two-hour and 54-minute contest, despite Becker trying to help his player by telling him that Djokovic was struggling mid-match. Rune managed to save a match point on his serve in the second set, eventually forcing a tiebreak.
“He’s feeling it too. Keep the points short,” Becker could be heard telling last year’s Paris Masters champion ahead of the tiebreak as Rune appeared to be cramping when he asked for salt. And his tactics worked as the sixth seed was able to force a decider before crashing out in three sets.
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The 55-year-old repeatedly stood up to support Rune throughout the match but it didn’t take Djokovic by surprise as the world No 1 later explained that he knew exactly what Becker was like. “It wasn’t disturbing. I expected it, I know him well. Three years we worked [together],” Djokovic told Eurosport when asked what it was like seeing Becker on his feet.
“I know that he obviously prepared Holger very well because he also knows my game very well but we haven’t seen each other much in the last five, six years. My game has evolved a bit, I’m trying to mix things up, not be very predictable. But again it was a big fight and Boris knows very well what it feels like being in a dog battle, going toe-to-toe for the last shot.”
The 24-time Grand Slam champion was also happy to see Becker back in the circuit, adding: “I love the way he supports his player. He was great for me for three years and we had great success. Whatever happens with the match we still are very close friends and I’m very glad to see him.”
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Meanwhile, Rune himself admitted that he knew Djokovic would change things up to try and lessen the advantage of any extra insight he had from Becker. The 20-year-old said: “We talked of course a little bit before the match on the game plan and what to do and his opinion on Novak. [Becker] obviously knows him pretty well but I didn’t manage to beat him so we didn’t do a good enough job if you can say so.
“I also said that you can’t expect Novak to play the same like he did last time so of course he was going to change something and that’s also one of the reasons why he’s a big champion. I was close, it was a close match, big battle.” It has still been a positive two weeks for Rune as he reached the semi-final in Basel and the quarter-final Paris after adding Becker to his camp.
Between Wimbledon and Basel, the world No 7 won just one of his seven matches and he credited the German for helping him rediscover his best form. Rune continued: “I had a tough last four, five months of my season so it’s never easy to turn it around just like that so definitely he helped me a lot to turn it around. I came almost from nothing, [losing in] first rounds, and to be able to play some of my high level and compete with Novak is a big confidence boost because if we had that match like three months ago, I would probably lose two sets straight.”
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