Calming Comments from a Coach
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is continuing with its on-court coaching experiment. In the finals of the Doha tournament, Maria Sharapova, won the first set and then struggled in the beginning of the second set getting broken in the second game and throwing in a couple double faults. Zvonareva’s game picked up in the second set and Sharapova continued to struggle through the end of the second set spraying many more unforced
errors than she had in the first set. As with many players, Sharapova’s game, especially her baseline play often seems to follow her serving, i.e. if she serves well then she plays well and vice versa. At the changeover between the second and third sets, Michael Joyce, Sharapova’s hitting partner and coach came on the court and offered some comments and advice to Sharapova. In the end, Sharapova started the third set strongly and cruised to victory without losing a game in the final set. It’s impossible to know how much and how, if at all, Michael Joyce’s advice helped Sharapova to turn things around in the third set or if she would have been able to do it all by herself. However, this is a match which illustrates why it’s a shame to add on-court coaching to professional tennis. Tennis has always been about trying to figure things out “on your own” in the middle of a match. Singles tennis is not a team sport, but an individual competition.
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