There was a hullabaloo a couple days ago about “Maria and the banana” – you’ve probably heard about how daddy, Yuri, took a banana out of his bag and held it up during a changeover and then suddenly Maria took one out of hers!  Yuri gets a lot of attention regarding his “coaching” during matches, but he’s not the only one.  There’s lots of coaching going on – from subtle signals to obvious actions and words uttered.  Ironically, Roger Federer seems to practically be the only player who doesn’t look at his “friends box” frequently during his matches.  He really only seems to stare in that direction after winning a set or a match.  In the semi-final matches, it seemed like everyone else (okay, maybe not Davydenko either) looked over at their supporters constantly, just a little eye contact before serving or after a tight point, e.g. Roddick and Youzhny looked over at their coaches just as much as Mauresmo, Henin-Hardenne and Sharapova.  We’ll never know whether it means anything when Carlos Rodriguez, Justine Henin-Hardenne’s coach, crosses his arms or Jimmy Connors, Andy Roddick’s “coach”, puts on his glasses.  The overwhelming majority of the time, the players are just reflexively looking for moral support when they make eye contact.  Regardless, let’s hope that it’s a long time until on-court coaching is “legalized” in professional tennis.