Legalised off-court coaching is coming to tennis, with Australian tournaments to be the first exposed to the significant rule change when it comes into effect on January 1.
Players will be able to receive “brief and discreet” instructions from their coaches in the box between points in the formalisation of a move which has previously been met with heavy criticism from greats including Roger Federer.
The International Tennis Federation announced this week it was satisfied with almost eight years of trials and would allow all ATP and WTA tour matches along with the four grand slams to permit off-court coaching.
Australia’s United Cup, Brisbane International and Canberra International tournaments will be among the first events likely to introduce the change ahead of the 2025 Australian Open.
ITF integrity boss Stuart Miller said the move would be welcomed by players, coaches and chair umpires, who had said monitoring exchanges between players and their personal box had overburdened them
Serena Williams was infamously handed a 파워볼사이트 code violation for receiving instructions from coach Patrick Mouratoglou during her 2018 US Open final against Naomi Osaka, sparking a major blow-up against the chair umpire.
Flushing Meadows has since been among the tournaments to have trialled coaching, along with the United Cup.
The trial was met with opposition from some corners, including Federer in 2019 and current world No. 5 Taylor Fritz, who two years ago called it a “dumb rule”.
“Tennis is an individual sport – why are we making it not an individual sport? Tennis is as much mental as it is physical, and a big part of it is you need to figuring it out on the court for yourself,” Fritz told reporters after a 2022 match against Nick Kyrgios.
