"ATP needs to clarify their rules": Bublik left fuming after ATP's decision to sanction him over on-court coaching

Alexander Bublik was left furious during his quarter-final match in Marseille as the umpire gave him a code violation for coaching which the player didn't like.

On-court coaching has been quasi-permitted in the ATP for a while now as players are allowed to get a few brief instructions from their boxes when they are playing in front of them. Bublik understood the rule as if he could have a conversation with his coach but the umpire intervened as it was not permitted.

Bublik said:

"He told me that [coaching] cannot be a conversation. But what if I ask a question and the coach tells me to do this and I say, I don’t feel it? That’s what happened. I told him I don’t feel the serve, and he told me go on, throw the ball differently, and I said I don’t feel it, and I got a coaching [violation]."

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He wants the ATP to clarify the rules:

"I think the ATP needs to just clarify their rules and if they allow coaching, allow it! It is not interrupting the play because that’s why I stood up 40 seconds before the changeover. i’m not the kind of guy to talk to someone to try to interrupt the game. Nobody gets coached by yelling and saying ‘Bend your legs’ or something. Maybe someone does, but not with me."

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