Wimbledon wants Grand Slam events to avoid in-match coaching

Wimbledon will block any move to legalize in-match coaching at the majors when the Grand Slam board meets to discuss modernizing the game next week.

A series of changes will be discussed by representatives of the All England Club, the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open at a London hotel during the ATP Finals, in what has been described as an "important" meeting for a sport that has sometimes been seen as resistant to change.

The agenda is relatively radical and includes shot clocks, restricted warm-up time, no lets, toilet break frequency limits, and prize money for first-round retirees.

It appears likely that there will be general support for making matches more efficient and appealing to fans and the media, but the argument for coaching could be a point of contention.

"Allowing coaching is a fundamental change to the sport and would be a really big decision for tennis," Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis told ESPN. "I'm not aware of any evidence of the WTA allowing it making any difference to the attractiveness of their Tour.

"We are philosophically very against. We believe it is a gladiatorial sport, an individual sport; you go on court and the whole premise of tennis is that you are on your own. That is one of the beauties of tennis compared to most, if not every other sport.

"For those that say it's difficult to police coaching at the moment and this would solve it -- we say it doesn't solve anything at all; it creates different issues. We will be pretty challenging and dogmatic on our views on coaching."