Brad Gilbert told a funny story while calling the men’s doubles finals at Wimbledon for ESPN on Saturday.
Gilbert and announcer Darren Cahill were talking about how the ATP is having a trial run to allow in-match coaching for the second half of the year. Coaching has never been allowed during matches, even though some coaches often broke the rules.
Gilbert was talking about the rule change and that led him to tell the story of how he got kicked out of his son Zach’s tennis match years ago after being caught coaching.
“I got a coaching story to tell you. I never got a coaching warning ever in my ATP career. My coach never got one coaching me. Zach was playing, who I call ‘Buck,’ he was playing a 14-and-unders tournament. And I was making a little motion because he wasn’t really looking at me. I was like, ‘play this kid’s forehand!’ Made a little motion. Stupid. He wasn’t looking and I was getting annoyed. Did it again … the roving lady linesman, who was around unfortunately when I was a kid, got pissed and gave me the straight hook out of the match.” Gilbert said.
“They gave me the hook out. Zach didn’t even know what I was talking about. He was putting his hands up like, ‘what the hell you talking about?’ I got ejected. [My wife] was like ‘you fetch your way back home!’ Ohhh man, I got the walk of shame! It was like an hour and fifteen minute ride back to home.”
Gilbert said the tournament took place in Northern California. Based on the timeline, it had to have taken place around the early 2000s.
As if Brad getting ejected weren’t bad enough, his son lost the match too.
Gilbert, 60, achieved a ranking as high as No. 4 in men’s singles during his playing career. Since then, he has coached the likes of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray. He also has served as a commentator for ESPN for years, where he shares these humorous stories.
