Medvedev not a fan of coaching

CINCINNATI • Following Rafael Nadal's second-round defeat by Borna Coric on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev is assured of the men's world No. 1 ranking heading into the US Open.

After triumphing in Los Cabos earlier this month, the Russian is looking to capture his second title of the season at the Cincinnati Masters this weekend.

Playing well in Cincinnati has, in the past, heralded a deep run at the US Open for Medvedev, who has endured a stop-start season due to injury and the ban on Russian players by Wimbledon organisers owing to the conflict in Ukraine.

The defending US Open champion lifted his maiden Masters 1000 crown at the hard-court event in 2019, and he made the final at Flushing Meadows that year.

Medvedev enjoyed a run to the semi-finals last season and followed that up with his maiden Grand Slam title.

He played American Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals yesterday - the result was not available at press time - with Cincinnati the final major warmup tournament before the US Open starts on Aug 29.

The final Major of the year will be slightly different unlike the last edition as the ATP Tour will be trialling off-court coaching in New York.

On-court coaching remains banned - in the 2018 US Open final, Serena Williams, who is likely to say farewell to tennis after this year's event, received violations for coaching, among other things, leading to her infamous meltdown.

However, the ATP has been experimenting with off-court coaching since last month, allowing an individual to coach a player both verbally and non-verbally from a designated seat - provided that it does not interrupt play or hinder an opponent.

The trial will run until the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin in November before the men's circuit evaluates whether to allow it on the tour in future, while the women's WTA Tour also has its own off-court coaching trial in place.

But Medvedev is not a fan, claiming that he does not see it having much of an impact.

"During the match, I don't really see how a coach can help," he said. "In some other sports, there is tactics, it's so important.

"When a tennis match is there, I guess it can be one match out of five where suddenly he's going to be like, 'change your position on return', or, 'go more to his backhand', if he sees it from the outside."

Fritz took a harsher stance earlier this week, saying that allowing players to receive instructions during a match was a "dumb rule" that went against the concept of tennis being an individual sport.

REUTERS

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