Taylor Fritz has lambasted one recent rule change made by tennis which he is sure is bad for the sport.
As someone who is usually so calm and measured, it’s interesting to see him be so vocal on a topic.
However, clearly he feels passionately on this subject, reiterating that the individual aspect of the sport should be cherished rather than expelled by the introduction of on-court coaching.
He would say as much, speaking to the Tennis Insider podcast.
Taylor Fritz blasts ‘awful’ tennis rule
Asked about his thoughts on the decision to allow on-court coaching, Taylor Fritz did not hold back in his assessment: ‘Oh, yeah. It’s awful,’ he began.
‘I understand it. I think it’s bad for the game; the game of tennis, it’s definitely bad, but for, like, fans and stuff, if there’s a way to, like, hear what you’re saying to your coach, if fans could hear that stuff, maybe that’s more entertaining, but we don’t even do that anyways.
‘So it’s like, we’re already missing out on that.
‘Tennis is so much like… this is an individual sport. Why can someone else tell me what to do when the strategy of tennis is such a big part of the game, like, understanding what my opponent’s doing, and maybe this is the pattern that they’re playing? Maybe I need to get out of this pattern, maybe how I’m structuring the point isn’t a winning point structure for me. I need to change something else.
‘Maybe I’m doing something that’s beating them, how is it fair that someone, if they’re not smart enough to figure out that they need to change what they’re doing, it’s complete BS that someone can tell them what to do.
‘I just think that the mind games that are going on during the match are a big part of tennis, and it’s like, why would we would we lose that when a coach can tell you? And obviously, I talk to my coach during matches, you can, but I don’t think I’m ever talking to him asking him, like, what do I do?
‘I’m telling him what I see and what I think. And then he’s almost just more so like giving me confirmation. It’s almost like a second opinion of I tell him what I see and he’s like, I agree and then I can feel more confident in kind of what I was already thinking.
‘I don’t know. I think it’s bad.’
This came just before Taylor Fritz beat Alexander Zverev in the BOSS Open final, proving his credentials both with and without a coach.
Tennis should never have removed the individual element of the sport
One of the greatest traits that tennis had which set it aside from other sports was its individuality.
A player and their coaches could do all the preparation in the world, mentally, physically and tactically.
But once those two players stepped out onto the court, it was just them, locked in a cage and forced to do battle.
There, a new match begins, different to the one that is played on the court. It’s a battle of the minds.
It added an extra element of quality and mental fortitude needed to succeed, which has since been stripped away by this new rule.
Whilst some players might prefer it, and most fans won’t notice the difference, it has taken away from the unique and special aspect of tennis.
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