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Peter BodoTennis
NEW YORK – We understood it. Tennis is an individual sport and one of its most popular features is the rule against coaching during Grand Slam and ATP Tour matches.
But there is also this: the game is now played for very high stakes by individuals who have whole teams that not only support them, but are still prominently on the court. Trying to do illicit coaching is difficult and highly subjective, an invitation to disaster. This was evident after the important role played by a coaching violation during Serena Williams' loss to Naomi Osaka on Saturday in the US Open final.
That's why it's time for tennis to carefully consider the rules governing coaching.
Serena Williams claims that her assessment of a match penalty in the US Open final was due to the sexism of referee Carlos Ramos, claiming that the men said "much worse" and n & rsquo; Were not penalized.
Naomi Osaka defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 to win the women's title of the US Open in 2018 in a controversial match that saw Williams receive a match penalty.
Was it fair? Players, experts and others have weighed on the code violations passed on to Serena Williams.
2 related
Section L of "Article III – Player Offense" at the Grand Slam Rules begins: "Players will not receive training during a match (including warm-up). Communication of any kind, audible or visible, between a player and a coach can be interpreted as a training. "
So, should you shout "Come on," when your protégé hits a winner? Is not it cool for a player to watch the box where his parents, his trainer, his physiotherapist and his agent sit and show his leg, indicating the cramps? When a trainer puts his left elbow in his right palm, is this a pre-agreed signal?
It becomes difficult. It can go crazy. And as we saw on Saturday, it can also spoil a tennis match. Chair Umpire Carlos Ramos – one of the Gold Badge elite referees, meaning he is considered a high ranking official – sent a code violation warning to Serena Williams in the second game of the second set, after Ramos Coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, made gestures that seemed to suggest that Williams go ahead, presumably to rush the net.
Williams immediately reacted to the penalty, personally attacking censorship. She apologized to Ramos, urging him "I'm not cheating".
These code violation warnings are not uncommon or unusual. (At least two other players received code violations for training, of which Dominika Cibulkova suffered a coach violation during his third-round match.) Players generally complain of their innocence and advance. And while Ramos accused Mouratoglou, not Williams, of cheating, the incident triggered everything that happened later. Williams just could not give up.
In the end, there was no doubt that Mouratoglou was coaching because he admits so much to Pam Shriver, ESPN analyst: "I was coach, but I do not think not [Serena] I watched. [Osaka’s] the coach was training all the time too. Everyone does it, 100% of the time. "
The coach was guilty of the charges, but the absurdity of the coaching rule – or the selective, sometimes capricious, manner that she imposes – was suggested in Williams' reaction after the match. She claimed that she was not aware of her coach's actions – or of her admission.
"I do not know, I just heard that too," said Williams about Mouratoglou's confession when she met the press after the match. "I just just texted Patrick, for example, what is he talking about? Because we have no signals. We have never discussed any signals. J & # I'm trying to understand why he would say that, I was at the other end, so I'm not sure, I want to clarify what he's talking about. "
3:25
ESPN analysts discuss controversial moments in the US Open women's final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.
The confusion – "mess" could be a better word – pointed out the weakness of the largely written rule. The fact that Williams has suffered is ironic, as she has never been a promising target for the coaching police. She does not even benefit from the field coaching allowed by the WTA during her tours.
Williams is proud of his ability to navigate tough times without looking to see if his coach is tapping or strategically placing his elbow on a handrail, like a former Major League Baseball coach.
That's more than you can say for many other players.
"One thing I like in tennis is to be there," she said. "It's the only time I do not want to hear anything that tells me." It's my moment of peace when I'm on the court where I hear no one, I'm not sure. I do not need it myself. "
1:45
The 2018 US Open champion, Naomi Osaka, joins ESPN to break her point in the dispute between Serena Williams and the chair umpire.
The violation of the code was certainly unfair to Williams. The rule itself is so amorphous that it can be used for any purpose. You have to change it – or delete it completely.
The rules should perhaps require the ejection of a coach caught in the act. This would surely be a more effective and disruptive punishment for a team that is actively cheating. A warning is just a slap on the wrist, and usually it is taken that way. In this case – and Williams did not seem to understand – it was a slap on his trainer's wrist.
But it was not an ordinary occasion. Williams was very stressed. It was a final of the US Open, the culmination of her return to tennis as a mother, in her home Grand Slam. She also sought to match Margaret Court's Grand Slam title (24).
In these circumstances, it is easier to understand how Williams' balance has been disrupted. Violation of coaching? You must joke! With the kind of things that happen every day on the tour? Williams' moment of peace was broken during what should have been a great opportunity to win or lose. Someone should get a code violation for this.
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