The racquet sport is transforming! Recently, the ITF announced that off-court coaching will be allowed in tennis from January 2025. According to the ITF, this move will make tennis “fairer and, potentially, more entertaining.” Coaching during matches has been a very controversial topic in the past. We’ve seen some players illegally receiving advice from their coaches. Be it Daniil Medvedev’s outburst at the 2022 AO or Serena Williams’ confrontation with the chair umpire at the 2018 US Open, there have been several incidents where players’s outburst of rage exposed the practice. Recently, Williams’ long-time rival, Jennifer Capriati shared her thoughts on the new coaching rule.

According to the new rule, coaches can now give advice either verbally or through hand gestures at any time except during the playing of a point. Not only that, in team events where we often see the captain sitting on the court, the team captain can now also give coaching advice. As per the new rules, players can also access approved “player analysis technology” at times. Whenever there is a change in a rule, we generally see mixed emotions. This recent change in rules is no exception.

According to American legend, Capriati, “I think players should be able to have a stat pad to see the analytics in real-time. A player should be able to figure this out instinctually, but sometimes what you think you are doing is not what’s actually happening. You need to see the data. Then use that to execute.” Capriati isn’t the only one who isn’t onboard with the new rule.

Criticizing the new rule, Canadian tennis player, Denis Shapovalov tweeted, “Not just as a tennis player but as a fan of this sport it’s sad to see this new off-court coaching rule. Tennis is special because you are out there alone. Why are you trying to change the beauty of this game?” In response to criticism, ITF’s senior executive director for integrity and legal, Stuart Miller said that they’ve gathered feedback from all key stakeholders including players, coaches, and the chair umpires.

There have been trials of permitted off-court coaching since 2017. In fact, from 2023, the majority of sanctioned tournaments including the Grand Slam events were trialing off-court coaching. Previously, players would receive a code violation if they were deemed to be receiving coaching from their coaches sitting in the stands. However, on-court coaching, apart from team events is still a big NO! According to the ITF, this new rule of off-court coaching will ease the burden on chair umpires. Because they always have to keep an eye on whether players are being coached or not. Will this be effective or will it be a massive failure? Time will tell!

Jennifer Capriati’s fierce rival, Serena Williams has been involved in a lot of controversies in her tennis career. However, Serena Willaims’ massive outburst at the 2018 US Open perhaps made the tennis world think a bit more about this rule.

The controversial moment when Jennifer Capriati’s old rival Serena Williams’ coach wasn’t allowed to coach

According to the previous rule, players couldn’t receive coaching during the match, even warm-up matches. It further states that communications of any kind, audible or visible, between a player and a coach may be construed as coaching. However, during the final of the 2018 US Open, Serena Williams was penalized three times in the second set. The chair umpire Carlos Ramos handed her a code violation for “coaching” from her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. The umpire spotted the Frenchman holding his hands apart indicating to Serena Williams that she should be playing a little closer to the baseline. Result?

Serena Williams was instantly handed a code violation! The first penalty was a warning. Then she was handed a second violation for smashing her racquet. After that, when Serena Williams called Carlos Ramos a “thief“, she was handed yet another penalty. Could the chair umpire have done things differently?

Tennis legend, Martina Navratilova suggested that a“soft warning” before the real warning could’ve led to a different scenario. However, ITF at that time defended the chair umpire saying, “Mr. Ramos undertook his duties as an official according to the relevant rule book and acted at all times with professionalism and integrity.” After this incident, we saw several bigwigs in the tennis world speaking up on this coaching rule more often.

For example, Billie Jean King stated, “If tennis would catch up with the 21st century and allow coaching on every point, the situation on the court would never have escalated to the level of absurdity that it did.” Different people have different opinions on this. What are your views on new coaching rule in tennis? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below: