WTA rules for younger players should be less stricter - Williams' coach
Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes that the WTA should have not too strict rules for the younger players in terms of tournaments they can commit to. The Frenchman said: "I know the idea is to protect young players, but the job of these young players is to compete. To do well, you need experience, but then they don't let them get experience in competing. Why are they protected by playing less? We all know that the ones who aren't getting to play matches are just having to practice twice as much. Momentum in tennis is so important. When it's the right moment, it's the right moment, and I'm not sure Martina Hingiswould've been No. 1 in the world at 16, or ever, if she had to deal with this rule, or if she couldn't start really competing until a few years later. It was her time right then."
Former player, and ESPN analyst Pam Shriver added: "I can't say no quick enough to the question of if the rule should be eliminated. I lived through it, and from '78 to when I retired in '97, I saw countless victims of overplaying, not managing their early career well, feeling the pressures, the burnout. It is there for a very good reason. Even though there will always be some young phenoms, some young players that can manage it all, most have problems. I have great faith in the experts who were on that panel. Ph.D.s, medical doctors, experts in adolescence. I mean the expertise on that panel, the thoughtfulness of the deliberations, I am in no place to say that they didn't do a great job. When you look at how long careers are now -- people are playing until their late 30s -- this is not a sprint. I think the rule can really help set a healthy pace at the beginning."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2yLyBtF
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