Roger Federer’s former coach Ivan Ljubicic had a humorous take on Holger Rune’s recent revelation about competing without a hat.
Holger Rune won in the fourth round of the Swiss Indoors Basel, Thursday October 26. He defeated Sebastian Baez in straight sets with a score of 7-6 (2), 6-1 to secure his place in the quarterfinals. against Tomas Etcheverry.
The Dane earlier beat Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a three-set match in the third round of the ATP 500 tournament. Holger Rune, who is known for wearing his cap backwards with a tuft of hair sticking out of the gap, was apparently seen competing without his cap during both rounds. After losing the first set in the first round against Kecmanovic on Tuesday October 24, he removed his cap.
The missing hat was a topic of discussion during the on-court interview with Holger Rune after his fourth-round victory. Rune, the sixth seed, said he had to constantly adjust it because of the intense heat.
“Yeah, that’s a good question, so it’s very, you know, for those who don’t know, it’s extremely hot in this arena, so yesterday after the first set I felt like sweating a lot and you know, I had to control everything. time so I said to myself: you know, why not play without it and see what happens, he said.
The 20-year-old further said that playing without his hat worked in his favor with positive results in both rounds in Basel, however, clarifying his stance of not being superstitious. He then jokingly expressed the desire to still have hair after fifty.
“You know, it’s nothing, I’m superstitious but I mean, it works pretty well, I understand that… you know, it’s also good to have a little air for the hair if you want to have hair at fifty, so yes, I appreciate it.” myself,” Rune added.
Commenting on X’s post-match statements to Holger Rune, Roger that of Federer former coach and former tennis player Ivan Ljubicic tweeted:
“Okay. Then I’ll start tipping my hat too.”
The former Croatian player, who coached Federer between 2016 and his retirement in 2022, helped the Swiss add three more major titles to his illustrious trophy cabinet. He is credited with improving Federer’s game, making him more offensive and also improving his backhand.
Holger Rune wants to crack Boris Becker’s Djokovic code
Holger Rune hopes his new coaching partnership with Boris Becker will give him access to some of world No.1 Novak. Djokovic’s play tactics. In the three years between 2013 and 2016, the German tennis great coached the Serbian to six major titles.
Notably, Holger Rune has beaten the 24-tile Grand Slam champion in two of their three previous encounters, both of which came at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments – one in 2022 in Paris and the other in Rome this year.
“It’s great to learn from players like Boris and Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak. It would be nice to steal a little bit of what they did. They achieved so much,” Rune said, Saturday, October 21 , as he prepared for the start of the ATP Swiss Indoors in Basel.
