Mumbai: Nishesh Basavareddy thought it was pretty crazy. Not just that he was sharing the Rod Laver Arena with his idol Novak Djokovic, but also that on numerous occasions when he went to fetch his towel between points, seated almost at an arm’s length to him was Andy Murray.
“You try to focus on the court, but sometimes I go to my towel and I see him saying, ‘Let’s go, Novak’, and look over and it’s pretty crazy,” Basavareddy said.
Murray is now Djokovic’s coach, and that comes with certain privileges at the 2025 Australian Open. If you want them, that is.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) had last October given the nod to off-court coaching from 2025, meaning coaches could legally pass on instructions to players from their box between points. The Australian Open took it a step further, designing specialised court-side coaching pods — they are right by the players’ towel box — for up to four members of a player’s team.
And so, Djokovic could have a lengthy chat with Murray between sets in his testing four-set opener against Basavareddy, the US teenager of Indian origin. Under pressure on serve, Jodie Anna Burrage could soak in instructions from her coaches and then fire a couple of solid first serves against Coco Gauff on Wednesday.
Tennis has frequently experimented with coaching rules, which was often a grey and controversial area in the past (remember Serena Williams being handed a code violation for it in the 2018 US Open final?). The WTA women’s tour even dabbled with on-court coaching, where coaches could head to the players’ chair between sets. But while that was largely unpopular, players appear to be warming up to this new fad at Melbourne Park.
“For me, it’s fine. You have the choice if you want to be coached or not,” world No.3 Gauff said. “I like this format better than when the coach had to come on court. That was a little bit weird. I like the fact that now you can say what you want (and) when you want.”
The pods — it also gives coaches access to live footage and match stats — are optional, and Gauff left it to her coaching team to decide (they chose the players’ box). World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka’s group has also so far continued to sit in the traditional area that is a bit further up, although most other top players, including Iga Swiatek, Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have liked the look and feel of the new zone. The big difference is that it is much easier to hear instructions from “basically on the court”, as Djokovic put it while revealing that he approached Murray a few times for advice.
“It’s much more convenient,” Swiatek said. “These rules for coaching, they were nice for smaller courts, but if you play in a big stadium, it’s impossible to hear the coach anyway. Now it makes much more sense. It’s our choice if we want to use it or not, and if you have good communication with your coach, I think it might work.”
It also works as good TV, for where else could you see Murray gesturing to Djokovic on court about something related to the backhand. Just before the start of that match, Basavareddy’s coach Bryan Smith, sitting courtside, spoke about the teen’s strengths while being interviewed. Perhaps Djokovic heard a bit of that too.
Not everyone is on board, though. Sabalenka is not a “fan” of the pods, and a lot more players were not either when ITF relaxed the coaching rules. World No.4 Taylor Fritz had tweeted then that it ruins the “1v1 mental/strategic aspect of the sport”. Players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were great mid-match problem solvers, and tennis stood out among other racquet sports where players periodically converse with coaches, in keeping that “1v1” aspect sacrosanct.
With this, that’s largely gone. This also threatens to further widen the bridge between those on the top of the ladder and the rest. A lot of the players outside the top 100 cannot afford travelling coaches, and certainly not an entourage that tennis’ cream carries around. The volume of bodies in those pods can therefore be lopsided for certain matches.
Its positioning, so close to the players on court, could also potentially spark confrontations, especially with there being instances of spice between a player and an opponent’s team. Gauff felt it shouldn’t be a concern as long as people are respectful on court.
“But at the United Cup,” she added, “it was a bit weird because I put my towel right next to the bench, and it was awkward not wanting to look at the opposite team.”
Awkward, pretty crazy, call it what you want, but the pods sure are making some noise at this Australian Open.
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