Serena Williams’ Coach Shares Key Advice
An eye for tennis greatness
Patrick Mouratoglou has been coaching tennis icon Serena Williams for years. Mouratoglou met with Williams after a shocking loss in the first round of the 2012 French Open. While working together, Williams has won 10 Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals. He founded the Mouratoglou Academy in 1996. It was home to notable players: Cori Gauff, Jason Tseng, Jérémy Chardy and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“You can't be the greatest player of all times if you have only one quality. But her biggest quality once again is her mental strength. I think she is the greatest player of all time for many reasons. Mostly If I had to name one thing — because of her mental strength. I think she thinks like a champion. When you prepare for a Grand Slam, you don't prepare for the first round — you prepare to get ready to win the tournament. We know Maria Sharapova for many years now. They played each other an incredible number of times. The idea is always to use your players strength and to put those strengths on the opponent's weaknesses and that's how you win the match,” Mouratoglou explains.
By the time Mouratoglou started coaching Williams, she had just suffered her first ever opening round defeat in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, losing in the first round of the 2012 French Open. Since then, Mouratoglou has guided Williams to her fifth, sixth and seventh Wimbledon titles, the Olympic gold medal, her fourth, fifth, and sixth US Open titles, her second and third French Open titles, three consecutive year-end championships titles, her sixth and seventh Australian Open title and lifted her back to world No. 1 in the WTA rankings. Mouratoglou’s advice for young players to is to believe in themselves.
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