ATP To Allow On-Court Coaching, Kyrgios Doesn’t Agree

The ATP has giving up trying to police on-court coaching. With players getting verbal and hand singles constantly from the coaching box, the ATP will make it legal to do so on a trial basis during the second half of 2022 and at the US Open.

There will still be some restrictions, but for the most part it’s open season for coaches to help their players during a match:

* Coaches must sit in the tournament’s designated coach seats
* Coaching (verbal and non-verbal) is allowed only if it does not interrupt play or create any hindrance to the opponent
* Verbal coaching is permitted only when the player is at the same end of the court
* Non-verbal coaching (hand signals) is permitted at any time
* Verbal coaching may consist of a few words and/or short phrases (no conversations are permitted)
* Coaches may not speak to their player when the player leaves the court for any reason
* Penalties and fines will still apply for abuse or misuse of the above coaching conditions

The decision was met with some criticism, notable Andy Roddick and Nick Kyrgios.

This is the most logical point against on court coaching. I’ll also add that some players share coaches so brings in tough scheduling conflicts as well https://t.co/rY5AaXrFxR

— andyroddick (@andyroddick) June 21, 2022

Completely disagree. Loses one of the only unique traits that no other sport had. The player had to figure out things on his own. That was the beauty of it. What happens if a high profile player versus a low ranked player who doesn’t have or afford a coach?

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 22, 2022