Tennis would benefit if coaches were allowed a more important role, says Boris Becker

Becker reflects on how the inconsistencies surrounding on-court coaching should be tackled, the role of parents in the development of young players, and the impact he had on the career of Novak Djokovic, who he coached between 2013 and 2016.

Mats Wilander posed the questions...

I coached the Davis Cup team and I coached the top German players today. What do other sports do? When a coach is caught misbehaving or coaching in basketball and football he gets kicked out – I think that should be considered in tennis.

I applaud that on the women’s tour, coaches are allowed to come on court each set because the quality of tennis improves. Now the top players obviously disagree because they have an advantage with that.

I think the quality of tennis in general would get better for everybody if there was more coaching involved and the coaches have a more important role. Obviously, you have to go with the times, we have to keep on staying relevant with the young audience.

My 19-year-old has the attention span on 15 seconds, so you’ve got to give him something to be excited about. If we stay with ‘same old, same old’ all the time, we’re going to lose the young audience.

They’re thinking about changing the rules for a faster game, but I don’t think that’s the solution because the viewer needs to see something different already with Hawkeye and already with the type of camera.

Television quality already has improved, and if we have more spectacle including the coach, I’d love to see conversations between Patrick and Serena. I think we would all learn something about you and your player – and so many other players as well. I think if Nick Kyrgios had a good, experienced coach he would definitely play better tennis.

There’s so many examples of why the coach would add to the quality and the spectacle of the game.

Coaching is complicated. It has so many layers and so many facets. It's tactical, it's physical, it's mental - which part is more important is debateable. Coaching an 18-year-old is different to a 25-year-old, or a 31-year-old. Djokovic at 31 is different than at 21 or at 25.

A good player usually doesn't listen because he's very stubborn. He's very convinced of his own qualities. But as a coach you can show him using the technology of today, we can prove it. If he says he felt his form was pretty good, but you weren't convinced by it.

Today we have the technology to say, 'You're wrong, player.' Djokovic didn't believe, and if you take the Nadal example with his backhand, to break down Nadal's game, you've got to go with the forehand.

Most players would think that's suicidal. Because of the quality of the backhand cross of Djokovic, he was able to open up the court, to get to the backhand as with most lefties, for example. But you have to have a backhand like Djokovic. If you have a backhand like me, then you can't do it!

So it depends on the player. It's complicated - every player has a different quality and he wants to bring the best quality out of his play - that's sometimes mental, sometimes physical and sometimes technical.

I think the beauty of our sport is that every generation had its superstar. It's impossible to think of another Roger Federer, or Serena Williams. On the women's side, you had Steffi Graff winning a lot of slams, and you had Margaret Court. On the men's side, when Pete Sampras reached 14 slams, it was an impossibility to even think someone could come close.

Now you have three players even better than this. So everything gets better. I think coaching improves the quality of tennis. A superstar will always be a superstar, but they will find the right coach at the right time. If you weren't good, you wouldn't be working with Serena.

If Ivan Ljubicic wasn't any good then Roger wouldn't be working with them. If Tony Nadal has as much influence over Rafa, he wouldn't think Carlos Moyá and Francisco Roig would better his nephew's performance - they wouldn't be coaching.

So you've got to go with the times. Everything has its moments - Djokovic won slams before me and he will win slams after me, but at the time I was the right coach improving his game. That's why I don't believe in one coach for one player all the time, and this goes or all sports. Everything has its time and you just have to pick it.