Billie Jean is a lover of on-court coaching on the ATP Tour

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  • All in favour: Billie Jean King believes the men's game can benefit from mid-match coaching breaks.

    With women’s tennis on the cusp of revolutionising the way coaches assist their players during matches, Billie Jean King believes the ATP should follow the WTA’s lead by allowing on-court coaching in the men’s game.

    In light of their new sponsorship deal with SAP, the WTA announced this week that, as of next season, coaches will be permitted to bring an authorised mobile device onto the court during a coaching break and use real-time data insights to analyse player performance.

    On-court coaching was introduced to women’s tennis in 2009 but has not crept into the men’s game, with a majority of the ATP players strongly against it.

    But tennis legend King, the founder of the WTA, thinks the men’s game can benefit from the same model.

    “I think they should have coaching for the men and the women. And I think they should be able to signal, because they do anyway, from the stands,” King told reporters on the sidelines of the WTA Finals in Singapore.

    “In football, they signal from the sidelines all the time. I think that's what we should do. I don't think we should have to wait between sets and I think the men should do it. You know why? There's more to talk about and there's more content.

     “I think any time we can get more content, that's good. And if we can get our coaches to have more respect in our sport, I think it would really be helpful.”

    The new WTA coaching app, which has been used this season by players and coaches post-match to prepare for future games, will be available for use by players when they call on their coaches during matches from the 2015 season.

    The news has been met with mixed reactions with some welcoming the technology and others firmly against it.

    Wim Fissette, coach of world No4 Simona Halep, believes it will be a useful tool.

    “These statistics on the coaching app will make my job easier and my advice more accurate during a match,” said the Belgian.

    But his student would prefer it if he didn’t make any mid-match trips to her bench at all.

    “I don't like to call my coach on court and to speak about this,” said the Romanian. “I like to be alone there, to see what I can do during the matches.

    “I think it helps some players. It's a good idea but I cannot comment on this, because for me I don't like it.”

    Caroline Wozniacki isn’t sure her father Piotr, who is her coach, can even know how to use a tablet and pull up the stats but says she can do it herself when he joins her on court.

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