"Sharaquita Banana"

As far as I know, Chrissie didn't do it, Martina and Steffi didn't need to, Monica Seles was smart enough not to, Capriati was too busy searching the stands for her dealers and Lindsay was too busy trying to get that monkey off her back until she won her first major.

Maria Sharapova makes a mockery of the "no coaching" rule every time she steps on to the court for a match. It was never more apparent than in her shaky quarterfinal match in the US Open this past week against Tatiana Golowin in which she eeked by in 2 tie breakers. In case you missed the incident, Sharapova's father, Yuri Sharapov, (who was strategically sitting in his "seat" so that Maria can always look for his signals) grabbed a cup, and Maria drank. Yuri held up a banana, and guess what - Maria ate a banana. Think if he held up toilet paper it would mean she would take a bathroom break?

“That man ain’t never eaten a banana in his life!” said Nick Bollettieri, Sharapova’s former coach and a long-time acquaintance of Mr. Sharapov. When questioned about "Bananagate" after the match, the #3 seed was a bit defensive: “Is it a coincidence? Probably, I don’t know.” Sharapova told reporters - “It’s up for you to decide,” she added. “You have the camera, I don’t.”

Reporter: “Did you see him grabbing the banana or water?”
“Do I see? Well, if I’m looking at him, I usually see. I’m not blind, as far as I know,” she said.

The question is, can this be considered coaching? Absolutely. Has it happened before? Absolutely. Will it happen again? Absolutely. People say coaching is in all other sports, collegiate tennis, high school tennis, Davis Cup. But purists like Roger Federer has argued the opposite: “We will be the only sport who doesn't have it and that's what’s good about it. We don't need to be like the other sports."

I agree. There's something about being out there alone and winning on your own devices. You still have the crowd backing you up, but when you win, what a feeling you know you did it on your own. And, on the flip, you now you have no one to blame but yourself, and, you haven't let anyone else down. But only a select type of person can play these type of sports like golf and tennis.

Every man for himself. Sometimes, one man IS an island.