In recent times Stefanos Tsitsipas has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. A lot of fans have been disappointed by the world number four’s behaviour. Tsitsipas has been rude with the ball boys, the umpire and to his opponents as well.
One of the major controversies stirred by Stefanos was when his father for several instances had been giving on-court coaching to his son. The latest instance of this was during the Australian Open 2022 when Tsitsipas was caught red-handed and given several warnings over him receiving on-court coaching.
A lot of the tennis players and almost the entire tennis fraternity have condemned these particular actions. However, recently the tennis legend Billie Jean King has come in support of Tsitsipas claiming that it is now the time when tennis starts accepting on-court coaching as the new norm in the sport.
She also went on to compare the sport of tennis with football and baseball where on-field instructions are given by the coach and the manager of the team.
Billie Jean King lends support to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Patrick McEnroe Podcast
Billie Jean was the visiting speaker in the Patrick McEnroe Podcast wherein they spoke about a lot of issues including the Tsitsipas controversy. Billie Jean King went on to say that tennis players are more ‘entertainers’ than sportspersons.
By stating this she was implying that their primary job is to cater to the audiences. She said that for the sake of making the sport more engaging some drastic measures have to be initiated. She went on to say,
“Let people coach…like Tsitsipas’s dad’s coaching. They have signals like the third base coach does in baseball. Just get rid of it. That way the poor umpire doesn’t have to pay attention to that at all”.
“First of all the player has to be able to hit,”
“You have been Davis cup coach. You know you can tell whatever you want, but it doesn’t mean he’s gonna do it.”
The 39-time grand slam winner surely knows how to stir up the attention of the tennis fans by making such statements.
In the meantime, Tsitsipas has had a mixed start to the 2022 season as he crashed out in the Australian Open 2022. He also lost the Rotterdam Open finals against the Canadian Rookie Felix Auger.
