Wimbledon Tennis: The dos and don'ts of coaching players on court

Wonderful World Of Wimbledon / Barry Millns / 25 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Tennis commentator Barry Millns has spent more time courtside than most and is well acquainted with the tennis rule books. So who better to explain to us the rules regarding courtside coaching?

In 2006 the WTA Tour began an experiment with on-court coaching during matches in a bid "to make the game more fan-friendly and entertaining for TV and in-stadium viewers". They were also well aware that for years certain individuals had been breaking the rules by coaching from the sidelines either verbally or through sign language.

The new experiment only applied to WTA events and not the grand slams which are governed by the International Tennis Federation. According to the latter's rules, which are similar to those enforced on the men's ATP Tour: 'Coaching is considered to be communication, advice or instruction of any kind, audible or visible, to a player'.

'In team events (e.g. Davis Cup and Fed Cup) where there is a team captain sitting on-court, the team captain may coach the player(s) during a set break and when the players change ends at the end of a game, but not when the players change ends after the first game of each set and not during a tie-break game. In all other matches, coaching is not allowed (except when play is suspended)'.

Shortly after the WTA experiment was introduced there was the infamous 'Bananagate' incident at the US Open when television cameras caught members of Maria Sharapova's camp holding up a banana and flashing four fingers from the stands during her final victory over Justine Henin. Much was made in the media of the possible meaning but ITF officials subsequently ruled the gestures were not code violations and Sharapova declared: "I believe at the end of the day, personally, my life is not about a banana!"

Following his five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the Rome Masters final earlier that year world No. 1 Roger Federer complained bitterly about the coaching-like exhortations the Spaniard received from his uncle and coach, Tony Nadal, during their match. When he was later asked about the WTA's experiment Federer said: "When we walk on the court, it's like when you walk into a classroom and you have a test. You can't look on somebody's paper. You have to be able to handle it yourself. That's how I see tennis."

But plenty of others, such as tennis legend Martina Navratilova, took the opposite view: "I think it's a good idea overall because you still have to hit the ball no matter what the coach tells you. And I think it will make for better tennis and more intrigue." The WTA Tour's CEO Larry Scott added: "I think it's much ado about nothing from a sporting perspective. There's no asterisk next to Tiger Woods' name because he gets coaching from his caddie on every shot."

As things stand the WTA Tour's trial allows players to nominate a coach before a tournament begins and to request permission from the chair umpire to speak to that person between sets. If an opponent takes an injury or bathroom timeout, a coach can also be consulted. The conversations are available to be heard on TV.

But aside from the WTA's experiment, which will be reviewed during the next fortnight, policing the issue of illegal coaching has always been difficult to do. For example if a coach calls out appreciation for a particular shot is that purely encouragement or coaching? Or if an umpire does not speak the language of the two players or their coaches, how does the umpire know if anything illegal is being said from the stands?

The advent of Hawk-Eye has also added another grey area to the whole issue with players frequently looking to their coaches to indicate whether they should challenge a line-call or not.

But, that aside, leading the list of fines for coaching handed out to numerous players over the last decade at grand slams, was the Argentine Franco Squillari, who had to pay out a total of $5,000 for two separate incidents at the 2000 French Open. Italy's Francesca Schiavone was fined $3,000 at the same event while the little-known Bulgarian Svetlana Krivencheva tops the table for most incidents of illegal coaching with five!