Courtside coaching, or an exercise in public humiliation?

...I found myself derailed by the bizarre view of courtside coaching in which the coach is attached to a microphone so that the TV audience can hear his every word. And what I saw in Maria Sharapova was a player who seemed utterly humiliated by the experience.

The humiliation started yesterday in the match against Kleybanova. The coach mentioned to Maria that he knew that her arm was tired but that he wanted to hit more slice serves down the line. She interrupted him snappily to retort, “I’m not tired!” Except that she did not seem to be talking to him so much as to me. It looked for all the world as if Maria was upset not at being told the truth – I know this because she promptly went out and executed every single aspect of her coach’s suggested game plan – but by the idea of being publicly overheard in the process...

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