At Roland Garros,
“Attention, new rule! “. Like Koh-Lanta, mocked in a Palmashow sketch for the fluctuation of its rules, tennis is also constantly evolving. If the rules of the game strictly speaking have changed little over time, the general environment is constantly reinventing itself. From “court coaching” to the multiplication of “wee breaks”, tennis is constantly adapting to the behavior of athletes. To the point of getting lost on the way and distorting what makes its very essence, namely the ability to respond alone and directly to the problems encountered during the match? The sleuths of 20 minutess investigated.
Attention, if we put all the evolutions in one and the same paper, we should not put everything in the same bag. Let’s take the example of short coaching. Since this year, Roland-Garros allows players to exchange live with their clan, when it is on the same side of the court as the athlete. This could have given rise to some pretty cool scenes, like with Gaël Monfils, who didn’t play a game on Tuesday night against Baez without exchanging a look and words with his two coaches in the stands. On this point, no one finds fundamentally anything to complain about.
“Everyone on an equal footing”
“There has always been great hypocrisy around that because, in fact, all the coaches gave advice in the middle of a match, in the shadow of the applause of the public, notes Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It’s just that we couldn’t do it properly, it was borderline sign language, if I wink it means this, if I raise a finger it means that”. Now at least things are clear. Having talked about it with a lot of people since the start of the tournament, Jean-René Lisnard, coach of the young Russian Mirra Andreeva, assures us that “everyone is happy with this new rule. “It puts everyone on an equal footing because, at the time when it was forbidden but it was done anyway, there was greater tolerance from the referees towards the best players”, he judges. .
Defeated in the first round by Argentinian Olivieri, Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard appreciates being able to rely on the advice of his trainer Emmanuel Planque. “Manu has an outside eye which necessarily brings me something since, me, on the ground, with the tension, the emotions, I do not always manage to have the necessary perspective to see what needs to be settled. Should I commit more or continue on this path? Should I go back from afar or from near? Things like that. But didn’t the beauty of tennis lie precisely in the ability to manage on your own?
“If we can give them even 1% more luck”
“It’s the key, indeed, agrees a decidedly volatile Tsonga. When I see the best, the Novaks, the Rogers or the Rafas, they don’t need anyone and make all their decisions on their own. But an Alcaraz, who talks a lot with Juan-Carlos Ferrero, is different. Afterwards, the goal is to bring him to a certain autonomy. The day when he will no longer need to turn around to talk to his coach, then it’s won. »
Besides, have we ever seen a coach radically change the course of a match, as may be the case in co-sport? “If we can bring them even just 1% more luck, it’s always taken, but it’s still them who make the difference,” confirms Lisnard. Short coaching therefore seems to be unanimous. For now.
But combine it with another evolution – this one a major one – data, and you enter an area that could prove to be turbulent. Frédéric Fontang, Félix Auger-Aliassime’s trainer: “Data is exploding in tennis and we will soon be able to discuss in the middle of a match with our player according to the data we receive live, announces- he. I am divided on this development because the history of tennis is a duel between two players who must solve the problems posed by the opponent on their own. There, the path is open to something completely different. »
Djoko, Noah and the little bladder
We now invite you to build a crescendo and discuss what, for once, represents in our eyes a FUCKING FLEAU in modern tennis: pee breaks. For some time, players seem to have become toilet addicts in the middle of a game. We remember in particular the friend Tsitsipas during the US Open 2021, who had driven his opponents crazy, Andy Murray in the lead, by dint of long repeated pit stops. Or even of Novak Djokovic, right here two years ago, whose desire for emptying happened strangely every time he was down two sets to nothing (in the round of 16 against Musetti and in the final against Tsitsipas). The ATP has since limited these breaks to three minutes (only at the end of a set and usable only once per match) but, in fact, the abuses are still legion.
“The players clearly exceed the allotted time, plague Fontang. I remember that Vasek Pospisil had exceeded the planned framework against Félix, this season at the Australian Open, without being sanctioned. It’s embarrassing, it can disrupt a match. Asked by a colleague at the start of the tournament about these sudden urges, Yannick Noah laughed out loud. “I think today’s players have smaller bladders, I can’t see anything else. From minimal until my last match, I never wanted to pee on the court! You piss before, period. I don’t want to play dumb, but what we can do together is check out this bladder problem. » Challenge accepted!
Luckily, Vincent Hupertan, our “in-house” urologist who can be found regularly in the Tout Sexplication podcast, has already “looked into the question”. “The bladder is a reservoir with pressure receptors and, as it fills, the brain is informed in real time of the level, he professes in the intro. There are several levels of intensity that will trigger different levels of craving. These are the three primary needs, B1, B2 and B3”.
An annoying strategy
“But, continues the urologist, the need to urinate is also connected to emotional elements. In case of stress for example, this need can be amplified. An athlete can do four hours of training without needing to urinate but, once in competition, the need can be felt suddenly. Not to mention that when you produce great physical effort, you drink more, which will promote the need. So it’s not a question of a smaller bladder. This being stated, this does not prevent Doctor Hubertan from questioning himself like Noah. “Stress has always existed, so there is no scientific reason why players need to go to the bathroom more today. »
But then ? “So there is necessarily another component, the strategic component which allows both to refocus, to clear up ideas in a calm place and to break the rhythm of the adversary”, he advances. WE’RE COMING! “We know that’s what it’s for, smiles Justine Henin, met at the start of the tournament. It is absolutely necessary to stop this machine in order to keep a certain rhythm in the matches. Sometimes, when things are not going well, you would like to go lock yourself up for ten minutes, or even an hour, but that is what makes the beauty of this sport, you are all alone on the field, you have to react, you don’t have to no time to think. So far no pee has really been a problem for Roland. But it’s probably because Djoko hasn’t been bothered too much by one of his opponents yet.