Mother is the best: Severin Lüthi and tennis talent Holger Rune are separating
The collaboration between the former Federer coach and the Danish top ten player ends surprisingly quickly. Rune's dominant mother may have played a role
In December, Holger Rune and his team surprised the tennis circus with the news that Severin Lüthi was joining the 20-year-old Dane's coaching staff. Immediately before the Swiss Indoors, he had already brought Boris Becker into his team.
Just over a month later, this message is already outdated. Rune and Lüthi agreed on Sunday to end the work with immediate effect. Severin Lüthi told the NZZ on Wednesday: “There’s actually not much to say. We tried it, and both sides saw relatively quickly that it wasn't working as we had imagined. Then it is better to end it immediately than to continue for another three or four months.”
The disappointing outcome of the Australian Open may have contributed to the quick separation. The first Grand Slam tournament of the season ended for Rune in the second round against Frenchman Arthur Cazaux. It was a bitter disappointment for the ambitious, self-confident Dane, who says of himself: "If I play well, then I'm better than everyone else."
Rune has a reputation for being uncontrolled on and off the court
After his victory at the Master 1000 tournament in Paris-Bercy in October 2022, Rune made it into the top ten for the first time. By late summer 2023, he had improved in the ranking to 4th place. Rune's talent is undisputed. At the same time, however, he is haunted by the reputation of being uncontrolled on and off the court.
In an interview before the Swiss Indoors in Basel, he told the NZZ last November : “I need someone to steer me in the right direction.”
The experience of Becker and Lüthi should help him. Boris personally campaigned to bring Lüthi and his experience into the team.
During the Australian Open, the 56-year-old said on Eurosport : “If you can have Lüthi, then you have to grab it. He’s probably at least as good as a coach, if not better, than me.”
It wasn't competence problems between Becker and Lüthi that led to the quick end of the collaboration. Apparently Rune's mother Aneke found it difficult to keep away. In the tennis scene she has a reputation for being overprotective and shielding her son. On the ATP website, Rune himself describes her, together with his youth coach Lars Christensen, as the “biggest inspiration” in his career.
It is not unnatural on the tennis tour to have a parent as a close reference person in your environment. The fact that it is difficult for parents to let go of their children is not a tennis-specific phenomenon.
Rune is known for his frequent changes of coaches
Aneke Rune is considered extremely dominant in the tennis scene. It is attributed to her that coaching drama often occurs in her son's environment. Last year, Rune worked twice with Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou. After the second separation, Aneke Rune told the Danish “Ekstra Bladet”: “It just didn’t work out. Now it is important that Holger finds the right team that he will have for a long time. He decided that it wasn't with Patrick." There were “ego conflicts” between Mouratoglou and Holger Rune’s long-term coach Lars Christensen.
Christensen is still in the Dane's team, as is Becker until further notice. For Severin Lüthi, his time with the Dane is up after just a few weeks. "I'm not leaving Holger with a grudge. He undoubtedly has great potential. But the timing wasn't ideal and it just didn't work out."
https://www.nzz.ch/sport/tennis/ten...1776759?mktcid=smch&mktcval=twpost_31-01-2024
