Holger Rune has made yet another change to his team by bringing in a new coach on a temporary basis for the upcoming Asian swing.
The Danish world No.14 has confirmed he will be working alongside Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh who has worked with the likes of Angelique Kerber, Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka and Andrea Petkovic. He is also a tennis commentator and represented Iran in the Davis Cup in 2008. The same year he started his career as a coach.
Rune has decided to bring the 44-year-old onto his team whilst his permanent coach, Kenneth Carlsen, takes a brief break before returning to the Tour in Europe later this year.
“During the Hangzhou Open and the upcoming tournaments in Asia, I have Benjamin ‘Benny’ Ebrahimzadeh with me as a coach,” Rune wrote in a statement published by tv2.dk.
“After a hectic period since Wimbledon with an extra six weeks in the USA in addition to what was originally planned, Kenneth Carlsen is in Denmark and taking time off. If you want to stay sharp as a coach, you will have to take time off.
“I trained with Benjamin in Monaco prior to my visit to Denmark. It has been some good training, where we have purposefully worked on some of the areas in my game where I have had my challenges in recent months. Now I’m looking forward to getting into battle and testing the things I’ve been working on. I am optimistic and believe that I can end the year well and hope that a strong final sprint will be enough to make it to the season finale in Turin.”
As it currently stands, Ebrahimzadeh will accompany Rune at tournaments in Hangzhou (where he is the top seed in the draw), Tokyo and Shanghai.
The 21-year-old currently has a win-loss record of 33-18 so far this season with his best result being a run to the final of the Brisbane International in January. He has also reached the semi-final stage at the Cincinnati Masters, Munich Open, Alcapulco Open and Montpellier Open.
Rune’s next scheduled match will be against Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama in Hangzhou on Saturday.
