Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff's ex-coach and Denis Shapovalov make their feelings known on new off-court coaching rule for 2025 season: "It's sad"

The ITF's latest rule change which will allow off-court coaching for players from the 2025 season has sparked negative reactions from Danis Shapovalov, Taylor Fritz, and Brad Gilbert. They expressed how the heart of the sport lay in the one-on-one battles between players and felt that this new rule change would prove to be detrimental.

On October 17, 2024, the International Tennis Federation announced that from January 1, 2025, coaching from an off-court location will be permitted for players.

This means that coaching will be allowed at any time except when the point is in play including between points, change of ends, set breaks, etc. The coaching between points must be brief and discreet, and communication can only be verbal or hand signals. Another caveat for the coaching between points stipulation is that the coach and the player must be at the same end of the court.

Many people from the tennis fraternity didn't take too kindly to this new rule change and expressed their dismay on social media.

Denis Shapovalov felt that this new rule change was detrimental to tennis since being 'alone' on the court was what made tennis special.

"Not just as a tennis player but as a fan of this sport it’s sad to see this new off court coaching rule. Tennis is special because you are out there alone. Why are you trying to change the beauty of this game," Shapovalov said.

Another player who bemoaned the new rule was Taylor Fritz, who said:

"Can we stop ruining the 1v1 mental/strategic aspect of the sport PLEASE."

Coco Gauff's ex-coach Brad Gilbert questioned the situations when the off-court coaching rule could be applied.

"Like during injury timeouts off court, and what other situations," he queried.

Taylor Fritz's feeling towards the off-court coaching rule isn't new.

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"It's a dumb rule" - Taylor Fritz had expressed his dismay at the off-court coaching rule in 2022

Taylor Fritz (Source: Getty)

Back in 2022, the ATP announced that they would be allowing off-court coaching on a trial basis for the second half of the season starting from July 11.

During his press conference after his win against Nick Kyrgios at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters, Taylor Fritz said he never felt the need to communicate with his coach Michael Russell since the rule was implemented and also proceeded to call the rule 'dumb'.

“I haven't talked to Mike and he hasn't talked to me one time since the coaching has become a thing. It's a dumb rule,” Fritz said.

He later explained how tennis was an individual sport and that the player should be the one figuring things out on the court.

“[It is a dumb rule] Because tennis is an individual sport. Why are we making it not an individual sport? A huge part of tennis is, in my mind, like as tennis is as much mental as it is physical, and a big part of it is you need to be figuring it out on the court for yourself. You need to be the one figuring it out,” he said.

Taylor Fritz later explained how a player who was not mentally present at a match, could get someone else to figure things out for them due to this rule which he found 'ridiculous'.