Roping in Becker as a coach could be Rune’s best move yet

THE season’s climax, the ATP Finals in Turin – where the world’s top eight players face off in a round-robin format, are almost upon us.

And the players hovering above the borderline to qualify, namely Shanghai champion Hugo Hurkacz, American No 1 Taylor Fritz and compatriot Tommy Paul are in pursuit of the chosen few.

However, the Americans are competing far from home and Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki took advantage of staunch crowd support at the Japan Open to rally from 5-2 down in the third set to clinch a shock victory over Fritz and reach the quarter-finals in Tokyo.

“I don’t know how, but I won the match! I lost the first set so quick (6-0), but kept fighting,” Mochizuki said.

Fritz will now head to Paris, a high scoring Masters 1000 event, to keep his own fight to Turin alive.

Meanwhile, in Stockholm at the Nordic Masters, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic served up an equal upset in handing World No 6 Holger Rune his second first-round defeat in as many weeks to advance to the quarter-finals.

The Dane has been struggling in the wake of his Wimbledon quarter-finals run, winning only one match out of nine.

However, his recent decision to hire former two-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker as his coach could be his best move yet.

Youngsters like Carlos Alcaraz (who is coached by former World No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero) and Rune will invariably have more respect and belief in a mentor who has actually won Grand Slams themselves.

Despite the fact Becker only emerged from a three-month stint in prison for concealing financial assets in December, the German – at the peak of his playing prowess – adopted a similar aggressive brand of tennis to Rune and was an excellent volleyer.

Thus, this should be a match made in heaven Becker also coached Novak Djokovic from 2013-2016, the difference being the Serbian GOAT was an entrenched baseliner, less suited to Becker’s natural style of play.

Rune had been hitting up with the former German No 1 for a week in Monte Carlo before the deal was sealed: “It makes me a little proud that he asked me!” Becker said in his usual droll manner. Another man feeling proud is Tommy Paul, who in beating fellow American Mackenzie Macdonald in Stockholm reached his ninth quarter-final of the season, keeping his Turin hopes alive.

So too American rising star Ben Shelton, who went through to his fourth quarter-final of the year in Tokyo, where he beat Paul 7-6(4) 6-3 yesterday to advance to the semis.

Yet sadly, the so-called ‘Nordic King’, Norwegian Casper Ruud – who is lying only 220 points north of Paul in the Pepperstone rankings for the Turin Race – was felled in the second round by yet another American, Marcos Giron, who is fast gaining a reputation for dismantling top-10 opponents, having previously scalped then-World No 10 Matteo Berrettini and Rune.

And of the men whose Turin berths are cast in stone, World No 1 and 2 Djokovic and Alcaraz, the latter has withdrawn from the Basel Masters as he is nursing a left foot and lower back so as not to jeopardise the remainder of his jam-packed 2023 schedule.

Djokovic on the other hand, who’s only played Davis Cup since landing his historic US Open victory, has announced that in addition to the Paris Masters singles, of which he is a six-time champion, he will be playing the doubles as well, partnering fellow Serb Kecmanovic for the first time.

They will be competing in a star-studded doubles field, which includes Jannik Sinner-Stan Wawrinka, Felix Auger-Aliassime-Sebastian Korda, Jiri Lehecka-Ben Shelton and Karen Khachanov -Andrey Rublev.

Clearly the penny has dropped that the ability to volley is now synonymous with winning on tour.

Take a bow Roger Federer, who claimed after his eighth Wimbledon title that he was the only man consistently wielding that weapon at the time.

DEBORAH CURTIS-SETCHELL