On Tuesday, the tennis media "Clay" wrote that tennis racket brand Babolat, sponsor of Holger Rune, was not pleased with the Dane selling his smashed rackets online — and had ordered him to take the rackets off the site.
“It is not our intention to promote broken rackets,” Marion Cornu, Tennis Business Leader at Babolat, told CLAY and RG Media.
In the webshop, which is owned by Rune's sister, Alma Rune, the smashed rackets are no longer for sale. However, Clay's story is not entirely correct, says Rune's mother, Aneke Rune, to TV 2 Sport.
"We chose to close off the more controversial part of the shop with 'broken rackets for charity' yesterday morning because it created a little too much media coverage. And it was never the intention to disturb Holger but only to focus on charity creatively, just as he has sold a tennis lesson and aces during tennis matches."
According to Clay, Babolat had ordered the smashed rackets removed from the webshop because it did not align with the brand's values.
“We are in talks with his agent. It is not our intention to promote broken rackets. We must be consistent with our values, so we are working on this issue with his representatives,” said Cornu, allegedly. But Anneke Rune denies that part of the story.
"I am aware that stories are circulating that Babolat has asked to close the sale, and that they were supposed to have been in contact with Holger's agent, but that is fake news. The agent has been in contact with senior employees at Babolat, who confirm that this is not correct, and work is being done to have the incorrect stories removed or corrected."
Holger Rune crashed out of the Wimbledon tournament in the first round when he lost to Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry.