Patrick Mouratoglou - "Serena Williams is never satisfied with silver"
Patrick Mouratoglou does not believe that his protégé Serena Williams lacks confidence in big finals. The French coach sees the problem in another area.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Mar 08, 2020, 10:12 am
Auckland may not be one of the larger events on the WTA tour - but for Serena Williams the success in early 2020 was of greater importance there. The American hadn't won a tournament on the tour since the 2017 Australian Open, and inexplicably slumped shortly before the finish, especially at the Grand Slam events. After her final bust at Wimbledon 2019 against Simona Halep, Williams thought aloud about expanding her tournament calendar a bit to get more match and win practice. That would give her the necessary confidence for the really big goals. The biggest: Setting Margaret Court's all-time record with 24 Grand Slam victories.
However, this is not the real goal of Williams, as her coach Patrick Mouratoglou stated in an essay for Tennis Head Magazine. "People ask me if Serena can set Court's record," Mouratoglou writes. “My answer to that is that she doesn't play to set records. She plays to break it. Serena is never satisfied with silver. It goes for gold - always. "
Serena's fitness is not yet at 100 percent
Mouratoglou sees the matter with the increased tournament stroke rate. "Of course it can give you confidence to play and win a lot of matches, but I don't think that lack of self-confidence was your problem," said the Frenchman, who also works on Stefanos Tsitsipas' coaching staff. “You don't win a quarter or semi-final like Serena if you don't have confidence. And similarly, there were no problems with your tennis before these finals. "
Rather, it is the physical component that Serena Williams is still struggling with. “She's getting closer to her 100% fitness, but she's not quite there yet. It is important to know that the fitness is at the highest possible level so that you can play a lot of balls if you get into trouble in the rallies. ”
Her last appearance was at the Fed Cup against Latvia. There she narrowly lost to Anastasija Sevastova, at least defeated Jelena Ostapenko. Next week is scheduled to start in Indian Wells - a tournament that Williams had turned his back on for years due to a racist incident.