"This is absolutely a fundamental distortion of tennis" - Sports pundit Jon Wertheim backs Fritz's stance on coaching

Sports journalist Jon Wertheim has thrown his support behind Taylor Fritz regarding his comments on the ATP's decision to allow off-court coaching for the second half of the season.

Earlier this year, the governing body of men's tennis announced that they were going to allow off-court coaching on a trial basis for the remainder of the 2022 season. The coaches, however, do not have a free rein in communicating with their players during matches as there are a certain set of conditions for them to follow. The change came into place in the week starting July 11 and will run through the US Open until the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin in November.

Speaking at a post-match press conference at the Western & Southern Open, Fritz touched upon the topic and stated his displeasure at the tweak in the rules.

“[It is a dumb rule] Because tennis is an individual sport. Why are we making it not an individual sport?" said Fritz. "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."

Speaking to Tennis Channel on Monday, Jon Wertheim stated that he agreed with Fritz’s views.

"I think most coaches disagree [with Taylor Fritz’s words], but you will notice that Fritz did not get a lot of blowback for that," said Wertheim. "Nor should he have. I think that was great of him to say. This is absolutely a fundamental distortion of tennis."

The 51-year-old believes that the authorities in charge are meddling with the fundamental rules of the sport.

“This isn't some little tweak that ‘hey we can try no towels or we can try to have automated line calling,’ this is really fundamental to tennis," he added. "To just sort of slip it in and say we're going to trial this, I think it is almost immoral."