Tennis is universally regarded as a gentlemen’s sport. Tennis players are required to act in a certain way and follow the code of conduct on the court. Consequently, many constantly profess that tennis is a boring sport. Serena Williams‘ coach Patrick Mouratoglou also called for some changes in the code of conduct of modern tennis.
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Moratoglou compared sports with movies and explained that tennis needs both good and bad characters like movies, who can express themselves better on the court.
The French coach called for the governing bodies of tennis to ease the code of conduct so that players can show their emotions on the court. He explicated that in the early 80s the sport was better than today.
“One of the main issues with tennis is the lack of emotion. And I think that people watch sports for the same reason they would watch a movie. They want to feel emotion. The emotion comes from the character and from the story,” said Mouratoglou in an interview at Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
“In tennis, you don’t have the story” – Patrick Mouratoglou
“In a good movie, you have great characters that you like and dislike. You have the good and the villain. The story creates something that brings you emotion. In tennis, you don’t have the story most of the times and you don’t have the characters,” he continued.
Patrick also explicated that it is not that the tennis players are not characters. They are characters. However, he revealed he has been traveling on the tour for the last 25 years and is in constant contact with the fans.
He divulged that fans often tell him that ‘the sport was better before because it had better characters and better personalities before.
“I said that’s not true. The only difference is before, personalities were expressing themselves on the court and they are not anymore because of the code of conduct that is extremely tough. They don’t dare to show their own emotions,” Mouratoglou added.
“Each UTS participant has been chosen because of their personality and because of their level of course. But they are all extremely different. They are all true personalities. UTS is going to give them the platform in which they can express their personalities fully and share these emotions with the people watching at home,” he concluded.
Read More: “Serena Williams Will Win One More Slam” – Patrick Mouratoglou
The Ultimate Tennis Showdown is scheduled to start from June 13. The format of the tournament is quite different from the usual. The players are free to express themselves on the court. However, these players are used to following certain rules and it will be interesting to watch if they can behave differently.
