Las recently taken by the ATP to introduce in men’s tennis the coaching on track (ie that tennis players can openly receive advice from their coaches) is, unsurprisingly, creating some controversy.
For example, the Australian Nick Kyrgios, who plays without a coach. Recently the prestigious technician Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been in charge of Serena Williams and Simona Halep, among others, has expressed his approval that a practice that has been used “for decades in this sport” is also legalized in men’s tennis. In the feminine for several seasons, the coaches can advise their pupils in the side changes.
However, Kyrgios defends the ‘soledad‘ of the player on court as one of the fundamental components of the game: “I completely disagree. One of the particularities that only this sport has. The player has to manage the match by himself. That’s the beauty of it,” explained Kyrgios, who also defended lower-ranked tennis players. “What happens if a top player plays against a lower-ranked player, who can’t afford a coach?”, he added, during his participation in the Mallorca Championships.
Kyrgios is not the only one who opposes coaching on the track. Carlos Moyformer world number 1 and now Rafael Nadal’s coach, has spoken out against this measure as many times as it has been proposed, also alluding to the particularity of the soledad of the player on court as a fundamental element of the sport.
