Talk to Me Coach

Opinion

Talk to Me Coach

Laver Cup has quickly become a fan favorite since Federer started it in 2017, replacing Davis Cup as the must-watch team event of the year. What makes it so popular? Player-to-player coaching.

During Laver Cup, our most-of-the-time useless Tennis Channel subscription now gets us insider access. We get to hear Carlos Alcaraz give Stefanos Tsitsipas advice during a changeover. And we get to ease drop on Federer & Zverev talking about court positioning mid-match.

David Foster Wallace describes why we’re so drawn to moments like these in his book, String Theory (highly recommend):

But this isn’t about Laver Cup or player-to-player coaching. A couple weeks ago, the ITF announced that off-court coaching will be allowed in all competitions starting in 2025. While the team event will remain one of the only times of the year where you’ll see player-to-player coaching, the ruling lets coaches talk to their players between points, during changeovers and set-breaks, from the comfort of their seat in the stands.

Some players aren’t happy with the decision. Denis Shapovalov and Taylor Fritz believe that coaching takes away from the 1v1 nature of the sport, where players are out there alone and need to problem solve solo.

While I understand where they’re coming from, allowing coaching will be a huge win for fans. From the player-coach conversations, we’ll get glimpses of how Ben Shelton is feeling and what he’s thinking about. We’ll see what the Gauff-Faurel (coach) relationship is like. And perhaps we’ll glean some nuggets of strategic wisdom from Darren Cahill (coach of Sinner) that we can apply to our own games. The players and their teams won’t feel as distant and behind closed doors as they have always been.

Off-court coaching also has the potential to bring not-yet tennis fans into the sport. How? Inevitably, players will do and say funny/ridiculous/insightful things when talking with their coaches in the heat of battle — all of which are clippable pieces of content that can go viral. The NFL and NBA do this very well by giving mics to its players. Tennis needs more of that, badly.

So Shapo can take the “I’m Batman, I work alone” stance, that’s fine with me. But for the sport, this is a win — something he might do more of now that he’s allowed to talk to his coach.

Trivia

This former player, now coach, is the only person to win a Wimbledon singles trophy as a wildcard. Who was it?

A. Paul Annacone

B. Juan Carlos Ferrero

C. Goran Ivanišević

D. Lleyton Hewitt

Find out at the bottom!

Meet the Player

Tomas Machac

Pronounced: TOH-mas MAH-hach

From: The Czech Republic

Best Slam Result: 4th Round

Career High Ranking: 25

Fun Fact: Hugh Grant is his favorite actor

Game Analysis: Machac hugs the baseline and rips the ball off of both sides. He is exceptional at stepping into anything remotely short and playing offense. Think Rublev, but faster, a better net game and shorter shorts.

Career Prediction: The 24 year old is having the best year of his career, and just cracked the top 25. He’s got what it takes to crack the top 10, and is a good dark-horse pick in the second week of a slam. That said, I don’t think he can hang with the top guys week in and week out. He’ll be a top 40 player for a long time.

Shot of the Week

Sorry Roddick

We’re throwin’ it back to this all-time great trick shot from Fed, at his hometown tournament in Basel. You can see the embarrassment on Roddick’s face from a mile away, but to his credit, he played it off with humor. Enjoy

*Click the picture above to see it

News

Headlines From the Tours

👱🏻 Taylor Fritz looks like the love child of Pete Davidson and Diplo. The American went blonde after saying he’s thought about it for years. He was recently asked if blondes have more fun, to which he replied, "We're going to have to wait and see, but hopefully."

🎖️ Maria Sharapova and the Bryan brothers will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame next year. Given the careers they had, this was a no-brainer. But many players and fans were outraged that legendary doubles player Daniel Nestor, who was on the ballot, didn’t make the cut. Nestor won 91 doubles titles, 12 grand slams, Olympic gold, and was World No. 1 for 108 weeks. Maybe voter turnout was weak.

🤖 There’s a new serve bot in town: Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard. While the 6’ 8” Frenchman’s initials are GMP, MPH would be more fitting. In the Basel final on Sunday, Perricard’s avg. 1st serve speed was 138 MPH, and 131 MPH for his 2nd. Now that's a cheat code. Perricard became the youngest to take home the title since the tournament’s inception, and instilled fear into pretty much everyone else on tour.

🇺🇸 American Sofia Kenin turned around her 8-20 season by making it to the finals of Tokyo last week (WTA 500). The former Australian Open champion had fallen to 155 in the world, but with the win, jumps to No. 88.

Memes

Answer

C. Goran Ivanišević

Ranked 125 in the world, Ivanišević received a wild card into the 2001 Wimbledon. If you’ve never seen the gut-wrenching, roller coaster last game of his 5-set thriller with Rafter in the final, it’s a must watch. Makes my eyes water every time.