Australian Open: How much is too much when players vent at their own coaches

That is, no (player) box warfare.

“I told him ‘If you ever cross that line during a match and tell me to take a hike, it’s a permanent hike’,’’ Woodforde told CODE Sports when discussing the sometimes fractious relations between athletes such as Jelena Ostapenko and their support teams that during the Australian Open have again been on very public display.

“I set some parameters with Marinko. If you want to just vent, ‘I can’t believe I’m hitting to the same shot’, that’s different. But to ever get to the personal, like ‘piss off’, I’ll piss off for good.

“The player is the boss; I totally understand that. But I would never be working with anyone that would be heading into that territory of ‘take a hike, buddy’.’’

Not only does it signal to an opponent that frustration is likely to be affecting their focus, Woodforde believes, but it shows a fundamental lack of respect.

Indeed, what became a running dialogue between the pair during their two year association included an emotional Matosevic claiming that Woodforde had not provided enough verbal support during a 2014 Australian Open five-setter against Kei Nishikori, and that he expected more than a coach “who is just going to sit there and clap’’.

Part of the backstory is that Matosevic’s trainer had left his seat beside Woodforde temporarily, when an old friend of the coach’s slipped in to say hello — an arrival that did not go unnoticed by the then Australian No.2.

“Immediately Marinko is like ‘who the *f — that?’ And don’t f — ing’’ talk to anyone whilst I’m playing’. He literally came over to the coaches box to say that, and I kind of shook my head, didn’t react,’’ Woodforde said.

“But I let him know afterwards and said ‘mate, if you’re focused on who’s sitting next to me and if I talk to anyone, really it just shows where your head’s at. It’s got nothing to do with whether I’m helping you, coaching you, supporting you.’’

Having worked at various times with a young Novak Djokovic, Vasek Pospisil, Yen-Hsun Lu, Australia’s Fed Cup team and others, Woodforde is now a commentator watching with amusement the restrained demeanour of calm coach Matosevic in the player boxes of Australian top 70 pair Jordan Thompson and Chris O’Connell.

“I take photos of him, and video of him, and I send it to him, and I’m like ‘Now isn’t this unbelievable that you sit there like that?’,’’ Woodforde says, laughing. “And Marinko’s like ‘Please, don’t go back there. I don’t want to go back there’.

“He is, I think, a very good coach. And I love the fact that he’s not one of those idiot coaches that think how loud they clap is the difference between their player winning and losing. Marinko, he sits there looking so angelic, doesn’t he?’’

When he sees a player abusing the team members in their box, and/or telling them to leave, Woodforde sees something very wrong, and not what a respected mentor such as Australian legend Tony Roche would have received or tolerated.

“There’s no way that any of those guys, whether it was (Pat) Rafter or Lleyton (Hewitt) or Roger (Federer), no-one would ever ever say a bad word to Rochey, That’s the respect he was given, and I feel for sure if they’d ever said ‘Take a hike, get outta here’, it would be a permanent hike. He wouldn’t be back.’’

*****

During the crazy late night events at Melbourne Park that have included the longest deciding tie-break in grand slam history and a 3.39am finish for Daniil Medvedev, some behaviour from volatile 11th seeded Ostapenko made for what Australian commentator Casey Dellacqua called very unpleasant viewing.

In the 11th seed’s second round match against Ajla Tomljanovic, as a commanding 6-0 lead morphed into a three-set scrap, Ostapenko could be seen berating a player box that included her mum Jelena, and then aggressively suggesting that, ahem, there was somewhere else her entire coaching team should be.

So out they filed.

“I feel very uncomfortable watching this,’’ Dellacqua declared, with the subject of entourage abuse given an extended airing the following morning on a Nine panel that included former No. 8 Alicia Molik and ex-wheelchair legend Dylan Alcott.

“It’s a weird sport, tennis, because we’re sole traders,’’ said Alcott, also a former basketballer, noting that players in other sports who have a crack at their coach would be benched, or dropped.

“But because we’re sole traders, the box are like ‘Do I leave? Do I want to keep my job? What do I actually do here?’. (Ostapenko) sent them out and they left and in the end they come back and it’s happy days.’’

Alcott admits that “I try and be nice to my coach, but I’ve also cracked it sometimes’’, while both the former Australian of the Year and Molik said they would leave if directed by a player they were working with. Butt not come back.

“I’ve had moments, even with my parents, where … they were trying to encourage me and I was like ‘Stop saying that, stop saying that’,’’ Alcott says. “It’s weird how things annoy you out on the court, but I think you’ve got to have that respect both ways, and I don’t like seeing when people get booted out.’’

Molik says support staff have been more vulnerable since the use of HawkEye has meant that now-redundant line judges can no longer be the recipients of bubbled-over emotion or frustration. “So now it’s all directed to the player box.’’

Some family members prefer not to sit there, for various reasons, and some players prefer a minimal team, while occasionally finding circumstances are beyond their control.

At last year’s US Open, twice in as many games against Caroline Wozniacki, eventual champion Coco Gauff had to tell newish team member Brad Gilbert to cease his incessant instructions and endless chirping in her direction. “Please stop,” she yelled at the veteran American. And then “Stop talking!”

To flip the script, Daniil Medvedev’s long-time coach Gilles Cervara left his court-side spot voluntarily after copping it in three languages during a third-round match on RLA in 2021. But was dutifully back in position two days later.

Whereas, back in 2007, Roger Rasheed quit his position as Lleyton Hewitt’s coach after one on-court savaging too many from the former Wimbledon champion that coincided with a shock loss to world No. 94 Igor Kunitsyn in Adelaide. That split was permanent.

*****

Andy Murray was a serial offender earlier in his career, particularly, Stefanos Tsitsipas ejected mum Julia from a match at Roland Garros last year, and there are other examples too numerous to mention.

Among the Aussies, Nick Kyrgios is notorious for a Captain Cranky routine that often targeted brother Christos and others he felt had not brought their own A-game in supporting roles.

Woodforde said that in his playing days he never expected coach Ray Ruffels or trainer Mark Waters to be constantly leaping to their feet like human yo-yos, because all the preparatory work had been done beforehand, so that was the model he followed when it was his turn to sit in a player’s box.

“Yeah, I would fist pump on a big point or be ‘Come on, this one’ here, and when necessary to stand up and applaud. But Marinko I think was on the beginning of the wave that he did expect me to be on my feet the whole time.

“I’d be like ‘You’re kidding me. Like, why? is that going to make you play better? Is it going to help you win the next point or the next set? I just don’t understand why you think standing incessantly up and down is going to help you? That baffled me.’’

Kyrgios’ close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis is a little more restrained than his sometime doubles partner, according to coach Todd Langman, who first worked with the South Australian at the age of seven.

“I think the players have to vent at times, and lucky for us with our athlete, he doesn’t make a habit of it,’’ Langman said. “It’s not personal, and I think the reminder needs to be ‘Composure under pressure’; the thing that the great players are able to do is slow themselves down and think their way through it.

“So when Thanasi does get worked up we just remind him to deep breathe, go through his routines, work though the process and really be present in the now. Every athlete is different, but that’s what we work on.’’

Former US Open doubles champion Sandon Stolle, now in charge of the National Academy juniors in Adelaide, believes releasing frustration can be healthier than internalising feelings that can be inhibiting, while noting the tricky dynamic when the athlete is the boss but the need for mutual consideration, regardless.

What clearly occurs at all levels was again in the spotlight after Friday night’s straight setter against Tomas Etcheverry, when 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic was asked about his robust, well, “discussions” with Goran Ivanisevic and his team, now that on-court coaching is permitted, if a little too late to save Serena Williams, and interactions — plus, potential opportunities for aggro — have amped up.

Just healthy tension? A smiling-by-then Djokovic was not so sure. “I guess they will probably tell you differently, but, yeah, at times it’s healthy, at times it’s unhealthy, but they are the people that are with me 24/7 obviously, and we go through some good times, some bad times.

“But it’s all part of the journey, it’s all part of challenges and obstacles that we have to overcome every day … It’s good to have a chit chat when I’m close to them, but many times you don’t even wanna understand what we tell each other!

“But it’s all fun when we are winning.’’

*****

Woodforde’s old doubles partner Todd Woodbridge, now a broadcaster and game show host, was the more excitable member of the duo that shared 11 slam titles, Davis Cup glory and Olympic gold, and was known to occasionally ask wife Natasha to leave her seat during tense matches.

Happily, CODE can report that the Woodbridges will celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary in April.

“She could almost predict it, when it was gonna happen,’’ says Tash Woodbridge’s sister, former Roland Garros semi-finalist Nicole Bradtke.

“You could feel it building up. She didn’t really like it, and she’d probably just sit there, where if it was me, I’d leave. I’d go ‘OK, you’re on your own’, and I think at some point that’s what you have to do to them, to show them ‘You look like a bit of a dill out there’. But it’s a tough one, because everyone’s different.’’

A player-coach situation is different again from the romantic or family kind, and Bradtke says the more animated competitors are the most likely to transgress, while experienced senior coaches are less commonly on the receiving end.

“I can’t imagine Jannik Sinner telling Darren Cahill to leave. There’s that level of respect,’’ says Bradtke, whose husband Mark, the ex-basketball great, and two sons are involved in team sport where backchat would guarantee a stint on the bench.

“The players are in charge of hiring and firing here, and so it’s a very different ball game. You’re probably thinking ‘I want to leave, but I can’t leave’, because it’s my job and I’m getting paid to do it, or do I just sit here and take it?’ So it takes a pretty special individual to deal with it.’’

Given that he never relied on coaching work from a financial point of view, Woodforde says he was more interested in acting professionally and making a positive impact on a player’s career than fearing he would lose his job.

“I think there are plenty of coaches out there who do coach, but there are other coaches out there who are hand holders or bag carriers or laundry people who are trying to coach as their player’s friend,’’ he says.

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“They are subservient, they are happy to have a job because they want the allure of being on the tour and they will say and do what the player wants because I think they feel like if they don’t the player is gonna fire them, and then it’s like where are they next?’’

For Ostapenko’s entourage it was obediently back courtside at Melbourne Park for Saturday’s third round loss to Victoria Azarenka, during which the temperamental Latvian could be seen putting her finger to her lips and giving the zip-it signal during the second set, then almost immediately starting a dialogue with those she had just gagged.

All of which was nicely summed up in the commentary box by retired Aussie great Sam Stosur, whose sympathy was with Team Ostapenko as she noted: “Can’t win.’’