Allowing coaches to give instructions from sidelines will reduce the charm of tennis

While the move can see coaches hand-hold their players in times of crisis or change strategy during the game, it threatens sports’ egalitarian charm. The fear is that players with bigger budgets can have better brain banks and wiser counsel during a game. Spoon feeding from the sidelines might also come in the way of players conjuring those moments of inspired magic. History shows that it is only when a player is trapped in a cul-de-sac of sapping spirit, and the match seems lost, that something stirs inside, ingenuity kicks in and they come up with a new way to get out of jail. Such riveting episodes enrich the narrative of sports, enhance the drama and increase its appeal to fans. In some cases, it also gives an idea of the limitless nature of human potential.

In the sporting ecosystem, tennis was an outlier. It left the player to find a way out of the mess on their own. That was one of its charms. Why make it like every other sport? To watch someone try and fail or succeed, or give up without trying — that is sport at its core. A coach shouting out ideas and instructions comes with the risk of reducing a tennis game into a battle of automated machines reeling out the shots. That would be a pity.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on June 24, 2022, under the title, ‘Spoonfeeding the game’.