The ATP has stated that during the second half of the season, 'off-court' coaching would be trialed. Starting the week of July 11, 2022, the trial will allow coaching from designated coach seats during qualifying and main draw matches at ATP Tour tournaments.
Many players struggled with coaching violations and this season, Stefanos Tsitsipas told one of the umpires to "give coaching violations to other players too". Many times these violations were seen as unfair and not given to all the players fairly and so ATP has decided to test a new solution.
Many different coaching regulations, like as on-court coaching and coaching via headsets, have been tested around the sport in recent years. Today's statement aligns the ATP Tour, US Open, and WTA Tour for the second half of the season, where an off-court coaching experiment is already in place.
Off-court coaching will be permitted under the following conditions:
- 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
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