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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="35px"]Some players still hold on to the romantic vision of tennis as a duel between two combatants in a vacuum—it’s about “how much can he remember, how much can he deal with in the moment, figure it out yourself a little bit,” as Roger Federer said last year in his case against on-court coaching—but it would be hard to argue that it is still anything like that in practice. The lonely game has become a little less lonely. They're muttering and staring at their people, all the time. This has basically no bearing on my enjoyment as a fan, except that sometimes, sometimes, I wish a player would direct their emotions at the audience—or even their opponent—instead of a tiny section of seats that lie all the way on the other side of the court 50 percent of the time, which has always felt like a stilted way to vent. That would be fun.