The Serena Williams controversy around the US Open final might have died down a little but her coach still wants coaching from the sidelines of a Grand Slam match to be made legal.
According to Patrick Mouratoglou, who was in the eye of a storm for having allegedly coached Serena during the US Open final, most coaches are on the wrong side of the law anyway during Grand Slams and it was time to allow it to naturally happen.
Players are allowed to be coached during WTA tournament matches but it’s banned during Grand Slam competitions. Williams had received a code violation in the 2018 US Open final after the chair umpire deemed that Mouratoglou was using hand gestures to coach her.
Later Mouratoglou admitted he had gestured to Williams during the match but that was because everyone did that.
Williams later broke a racquet and got a point penalty which led to an argument with the chair umpire and a further loss of a game for her third code violation during the match.
Mouratoglou released a statement questioning the coaching ban at Grand Slam, stating different reasons why it should be encouraged instead of being let go during Grand Slams.
The status of coaching in tennis needs reforming. Read my opinion below pic.twitter.com/qLKIINwqbx
— Patrick Mouratoglou (@pmouratoglou) October 18, 2018
He said:
“It is time tennis leaders amend the status of coaching. If we don’t get people involved, then tennis is only ever going to be followed by pure tennis lovers.”
“We need to show the viewers the personalities of the people they are watching.”
Mouratoglou also said one of the reasons why it should be allowed was to be able to appeal to the modern-day fans.
In September, Wimbledon had admitted they were open to discussing this issue and later tweeted:
Wimbledon has always been, and remains, fundamentally opposed to any form of coaching during a match. Tennis is a gladiatorial contest. It’s one of the things that differentiates it in world sport. We welcome the opportunity for the sport to come together to debate this issue. pic.twitter.com/hReuN0TtVp
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) September 28, 2018
They had said:
“Wimbledon has always been, and remains, fundamentally opposed to any form of coaching during a match. Tennis is a gladiatorial contest. It’s one of the things that differentiates it in world sport. We welcome the opportunity for the sport to come together to debate this issue.”
Serena’s coach also alleged that the number of times players looked at their boxes during matches was an indicator they were looking for tips from their coaches during matches.
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