If players are not happy with the rule preventing coaching from the stands, they can lobby to change the rules, the ATP chief executive Chris Kermode said on Monday, as the row began to impinge on the serene progress of the defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and his coach, Boris Becker.
“I personally like the fighting spirit of the sport, the gladiatorial nature of tennis, but I wouldn’t like to see coaches coming down on to the court, for instance,” Kermode said in response to the latest flare-up in the controversy.
“But it is up to the board to rule on that and it is open to players to bring it up with them any time they want. All of our rules are reviewed every year, but I would doubt this one would be changed over just one incident. It is a grey area but we are constantly monitoring it and have a unit watching at every single tournament. It is a judgment call.”
Djokovic did his level best on day one to invest his return to the scene of his triumph over Roger Federer in the 2014 final with the sort of gravitas and dignity befitting a champion. It didn’t quite work out that way.
After despatching Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets on Centre Court - a setting he described in suitably reverent tones to the BBC as, “the cradle of our sport” – for the second time in as many days the world No 1 was asked why Becker has admitted his team indulge in what, according to the ATP rulebook, amounts to contravention of their code of conduct.
The cacophony will fade soon – not soon enough for Djokovic, judging by the tone of his response in a robust press conference – but it is not the media’s fault that Becker chose to reveal on the One Show recently the following candid and, some would say, damning account of how it works: “We get penalised if we make hand signals, start to communicate with the players,” he said. “The umpire watches us some times and we have to be very careful what we do. I’m part of a team, assistant coach and a physio. And their Serbian is much better than mine, so some times the words go through, that is not English or German, not coming from me. Nobody can detect where it’s from.
“But Novak hears them and hopefully he picks out the right things. We make... let’s call it noise. We make noises... push him with hour hands to make him stay closer [to the baseline]... to toss the ball higher... hit the forehand.
“There are players who look after every single point to their coach. They have a real conversation. I don’t know why they’re not stopped.... Plus, how much can you really help? I dunno. Somebody formed the rules. You wonder why they still exist. It’s actually for the good of the game. The play would be better. In [the WTA] coaches are allowed on the court. I think that’s a good thing.”
Yet, Becker would seem to have had no such similarly frank conversation with Djokovic, because the player insisted after his incident-free 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Becker’s compatriot that this was a row going nowhere.
“I’m just trying to figure out what you want to achieve with this story,”
he said when asked for a response to Becker’s interview. “I don’t understand what you really want. Do you want to say I’m cheating, my team?”
He conceded it was an issue in the sport, however. “If I am breaking any rules or my team does, I would be fined for that, right? The chair umpire would say, ‘coaching penalty’, and that’s it. Or the supervisor, or whoever. I think it has happened in my life, no doubt about that. Of course, I accept the fact if my coach Boris or Marian [Vajda] do say something that is against the rules that are in place, I have no complaint about the code violation that I get for coaching. I’m completely fine by that. I just don’t understand why this same story is repeating over and over for days.”
It is a question he might more appropriately have put to Becker later in the evening – and perhaps asked also how many copies of his latest book the rolling controversy has shifted. As for the champion’s tennis, it is in decent shape. He started tentatively and hit a good pitch of excellence towards the end.
As Kohlschreiber accepted: “The only little, little, little chance was when I had the opportunity to go up a break in the first set. I missed quite a good chance, pretty close. After that he was, I think, in his mode. He was winning his service games easier, more chances. Overall, he played better than I did. I played a good match but not good enough to beat him.”
“He’s moving like a ball machine, not giving you easy points and he’s bringing too many balls back – especially on the return; I played some great serves but it just came back much harder. That’s pretty tough. I don’t think he was rusty.”
