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A war of words has erupted on social media between Aussie tennis legend Todd Woodbridge and Serena Williams' former coach Patrick Mouratoglou, after it was announced the ATP Tour would be trialling off-court coaching.

Woodbridge hammered Mouratoglou after the coach tweeted 'Congratulations to the ATP for "legalising" a practice that has been going on at almost every match for decades'. 

Under the rule change, players will be allowed to receive instructions from their coaches during matches, with a trial to begin later this year.  

Frenchman Mouratoglou, who currently coaches two-time Grand Slam winner Simona Halep, was at the centre of one of the sport's most infamous off-court coaching scandals when Williams lost to Naomi Osaka at the 2018 US Open final.

His supposed admission of off-court coaching did not sit well with Woodbridge. 

'This is so disappointing to see that such a high profile coach blatantly admits that he has broken the rules of our sport for so long,' he wrote on Twitter.

Mouratoglou fired back almost immediately. 

'This is a particularly bad one from you Todd. You have been on tour for a long time. Why do you deny the evidence of the coaching happening every day on the courts? To purposely trying to make me look bad and accusing me. This is disappointing,' he wrote on Twitter.

'And by the way, learn to read. I never wrote that I was doing what you pretend I wrote.'  

That Mouratoglou of all coaches was happy to see the ATP trial off-court coaching for all tour events post-Wimbledon clearly irked Woodbridge. 

When Mouratoglou was coaching Williams during the 2018 US Open final, she uncharacteristically imploded

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