"I'm more than happy I won't have to deal with strict referees" - Tsitsipas on coaching in tennis

ATP
Saturday, 27 August 2022 at 20:00
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No player received more coaching violations than Stefanos Tsitsipas in his career and he's happy that it's been legalized for now.
Stefanos Tsitsipas became famous over the year for various types of coaching offences having his father talk non-stop during matches. Being Greek helps as the vast majority of people don't understand Greek so umpires were forced to adopt new ways of spotting coaching. Eventually, they found cues and started issuing coaching violations which racked up a lot of fines for Tsitsipas.
He's happy that it's going to stop as it's always been present in tennis, some are just a bit more discreet than others:
"My coach has not been as discreet as other coaches, but it (off-court coaching) has always been happening. I've got a lot of coaching violations, which I found unfair. But now that it's legalised I'm more than happy I won't have to deal with referees that are so strict and want to kind of ruin the game."
Asked about a comment by his colleague Taylor Fritz calling the change 'dumb', Tsitsipas disagreed:
"Trust me, it (off-court coaching) is happening with almost every single player. The fact that it's legalised now is going to make tennis a bit more peaceful, make players concentrate more on the game, less on different kinds of nonsense."

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