Tsitsipas, Federer disagree over on-court coaching

 

Stefanos Tsisipas and Roger Federer have embraced different opinions over proposed tennis change, on-court coaching.

While Tsisipas is pushing for a change that would allow coaches to give their players pointers during matches noting that it is in operation on the women’s tour but not in the men’s tour, the Swiss maestro is totally against the idea.

He said: “What’s the point of having a coach with you if you can’t get the whole benefit out of it?

“There should be certain regulations and certain ways to enhance it into players’ performance without it becoming too much,” said Tsisipas

But Federer believes it behooves on a player who has been coached to impliment what he has learnt on the court without having the coach run commentary.

He told reporters at Wimbledon: “In my opinion we shouldn’t have coaching in tennis.

“I’m a big believer in that. I know some people are completely on my side. Some people are, Why not? Every other sport has it. I guess you can see both angles.”

He added: “I think the player gets his advice (before the match) then it’s how much can he remember, how much can he deal with in the moment, figure it out yourself a little bit.

“I’m against on-court coaching in any shape or form except for rain delays, whatever you call it, when it gets too late, gets carried over to the next day.

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“I don’t think it’s necessary, to be honest. Then we go deeper into the sport where maybe I can obviously afford more coaching than others. Is that fair? It is what it is. I think it puts everybody on an even playing field if there’s no coaching.”

Nick Kyrgios weighed in on the polarising debate and also was not in favour of the idea.

Last month, Tennis TV posted a quote from Tsitsipas on Instagram which read: “Coaching on every point should be allowed in tennis, make it legal. It’s about time the sport takes a big step forward.”

This sparked a response from the Australian in the comments: “I usually don’t mind his ideas, but this one is terrible.”