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Zoo Tennis
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All levels of tennis deal with the sport's myriad variables from one tournament to the next: court surfaces and speeds, balls, scoring formats, weather.
Cooper Willams Receives Coaching from Brian Baker
© Zoo Tennis
Now, another wrinkle has been added in the realm of coaching, with top American juniors and their coaches navigating three distinct varieties. The United States Tennis Association has long permitted coaching before a third set; the four junior slams are now part of a trial that allows coaching based on the ATP and WTA Tours' model; no coaching of any kind is permissible on the International Tennis Federation Junior Circuit.
The coaching trials at the 2023 junior slams, which are expected to extend through 2024, correspond to the current ATP/WTA coaching rules. Brief interactions from a designated player box by an accredited person are allowed, but no conversations can take place between coach and player except during an opponent's bathroom break or medical timeout; gestures are acceptable when a player is on the opposite end of the court from the box.
"I think they've done it in a really smart way, where it's not too overpowering, not too heavily involved," said Morgan Phillips, an LTA coach who works with 2023 Wimbledon boys champion Henry Searle of Great Britain. "I really like the system of being able to coach. I always like to be involved in the match in a good way, as much as possible. In an individual sport, there's so much work that goes in with the coaching team before and then it doesn't feel right sometimes when you can't be involved in the actual match."
