Daniil Medvedev Unsure If ATP’s Off-Court Coaching Trial Will Have Any Impact - UBITENNIS

Daniil Medvedev Unsure If ATP’s Off-Court Coaching Trial Will Have Any Impact

Medvedev’s next opponent at the Western and Southern Open has also criticized what he describes as a ‘dumb’ rule.

By Adam Addicott
3 Min Read
Daniil Medvedev - Roland Garros 2022 (foto Roberto Dell'Olivo)

World No.1 Daniil Medvedev is not against the implementation of off-court coaching on the men’s Tour but he is unsure about its significance.

Last month the government body of men’s tennis, the ATP, announced that they will be implementing a trial for the second half of 2022 where coaches are allowed to interact with their players during matches. Providing they are doing so from a designated spot and are not hindering their opponents. They can only make signals when their players are at the same end of the court as them. The trial is also taking place at the US Open for the first time.

However, Medvedev remains sceptical about the possibility that off-court coaching could influence the outcome of a tennis match. Although he states that he was ‘never against’ the rule to begin with.

“During the match, I don’t really see how a coach can help,” Medvedev said following his 7-5, 7-5, win over Denis Shapovalov at the Western and Southern Open. “In some other sports there is tactics, it’s so important.
“When a tennis match is there, I guess it can be one match out of five where suddenly he’s going to be like, ‘change your position on return’, or, ‘go more to his backhand’, if he sees it from the outside.”

The Russian cites his upcoming clash with Taylor Fritz as an example of why he thinks the new initiative is limited in its effectiveness.

“It’s our first encounter, still, I know how he plays and he knows how I play. I don’t think on-court coaching tomorrow is going to make a huge difference.” He said.

Fritz is another player who has hit out at the trial by branding it as a ‘dumb’ rule earlier this week. The American argues that singles tennis is an individual sport and changes shouldn’t be made to that concept.

“I haven’t talked to Mike (Russell) and he hasn’t talked to me one time since the coaching has become a thing. It’s a dumb rule,” the world No.13 said on Wednesday.
“Why are we making it not an individual sport? A huge part of tennis is, in my mind, like as tennis is as much mental as it is physical, and a big part of it is you need to be figuring it out on the court for yourself.
“I think it’s ridiculous that you can be mentally not there, not good analytically, not good at kind of working through things and coming up with strategies, and you can have someone tell you what to do. I hate it.”

The off-court coaching trial will last until at least this year’s ATP Finals in Turin.

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