Is it now time to let coaches have their say?
Seeing and hearing the communication between the competitor and their team members is something we are well accustomed to in sport —a football manager bellowing orders from the touchline, a caddie telling a golfer which club to use and a Formula One team giving instructions to a driver over the radio.
The same, however, does not apply in tennis. On the eve of Wimbledon, Boris Becker’s revelation that he had ways of communicating with novak Djokovic from the players’ box forced the world no 1 to deny accusations of cheating.
The grand Slam rulebook reads: ‘Players shall not receive coaching during a match (including the warm-up). Communications of any kind, audible or visible, between a player and a coach may be construed as coaching.’
But there are a growing amount of voices calling for on- court coaching to be allowed. Rafael nadal’s coach Toni has long been accused of flouting the rule and Rafa was fined £1,300 at Wimbledon in 2010 for receiving tips from the box.
Toni told Sportsmail: ‘normally when i am on the seat, i always say things like “come on” and “move your legs”. everything that you say is coaching. it is a little stupid for me that the coach is the only person who can say nothing. The spectator can say something and the coach can’t say anything. it is unbelievable.
‘For me, there is only a problem with the people who are managing this sport and don’t think about changes. it’s the same rules for 150 years.’
Since 2009 on the women’s WTA tour (tournaments other than the grand Slams), players have been allowed to take one break per set, either during a change of ends or at the end of a set, and ask their coach, who is a fitted with a microphone for the benefit of TV viewers, to come on to the court.
Former world no 1 Caroline Wozniacki feels coaching instructions from the stands should also be permitted.
‘i don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be allowed,’ said Wozniacki. ‘i think it’s only going to help to raise the standard of play. i think what everyone wants is to have the highest level possible.’ The men’s ATP tour trialled oncourt coaching breaks for a brief period in 1998, but it never took off and they do not seem set on reintroducing it any time soon. World no 6 Tomas Berdych said: ‘i’m definitely not for the way the girls do it, getting a coach on the changeovers. i think there’s a way to figure it out. if things are happening in reasonable time and the player is not taking time to talk and delay the play, that’s a thing that i would like to see.’ One of the most famous examples of on- court coaching was during the 2006 US Open final when Maria Sharapova’s father Yuri held a banana in the air in an apparent reminder to eat. There are more extreme examples, particularly on the junior tour where matches are sometimes played without an umpire. Judy Murray recalls some from her days on the circuit with sons Andy and Jamie. ‘You get instances of parents taking on a fresh water bottle, passing it over and there are instructions taped to the side of it,’ revealed Murray. ‘There are parents who read newspapers with things written on the back, like “play to his backhand”. People will go to extraordinary lengths.’ The Davis Cup and Fed Cup competitions are the only events where there are no such rules, with a captain on the bench and team-mates sitting courtside. Andy Murray was constantly shouting encouragement to James Ward during great Britain’s tie with the USA in March. ‘i thought that was brilliant,’ said Davis Cup captain Leon Smith. ‘i thought that added to the atmosphere with the crowd watching Andy going mental, shouting and encouraging. . ‘What you don’t want to do is take away too much of the one-onone aspect. But i don’t think that by being allowed to shout from the sidelines you would do that.’
“Same rules for 150 years — unbelievable”