Mouratoglou gives his opinion on Serena's new body: "If she had been like this a few years ago.."

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When Patrick Mouratoglou speaks, bakers smile, but it's the journalists who truly revel in the mud. There's something about the Frenchman that always makes it tremendously easy to get a couple of headlines out of him, sometimes almost effortlessly, but his firm and direct speech does not mince words, regardless of the topic. In his latest chat with The Guardian, the topics discussed were crystal clear: his past relationship with Serena Williams—whom he coached for ten years—and his coaching split with Naomi Osaka, whom he stopped working with at the end of July. And the truth is that his messages for both players have made headlines around the world.

Let's start with Serena, whom he guided from 2012 to 2022. "We had a lot of trust from the beginning, total trust. We fed off each other in terms of motivation; I knew perfectly how to push her, provoke her to be more competitive. We started in a tough period; she hadn't won a Grand Slam in two years, suffering her first-ever first-round defeat. When something like that happens, even the greatest competitors start to think a bit differently, which affects their competitive quality,” recalls the Frenchman about the project that changed his life forever.

However, the dream of capturing the #24 Grand Slam didn't materialize, partly because Serena was never the same after becoming a mother. "Tennis is a sport where you can't afford to be overweight," points out Patrick frankly. "Firstly, due to joint pressure, if you struggle in this aspect, your chances decrease significantly. The second reason is that this is a sport where you change direction all the time, with high speed, one extra kilo can make a big difference. When you're at full speed in one direction with an extra kilo and need to stop and turn back, the time you lose is really significant. Just look at the best in the world and their way of moving,” contrasts the 55-year-old coach.

Now I see that she's leaner; if she had been in this position years ago… the results would have been better, for sure," states the Frenchman.

HIS SPLIT WITH OSAKA

But Serena has long been part of the past; now his new project was named Naomi Osaka, although their professional connection didn't even last a year. "The results weren't good enough, which made a lot of sense. I think we did good things, especially in training, but anything can ruin everything when it comes to competing. I believe she improved a lot; I saw it daily, her mentality was great, but she didn’t perform well during matches, that was the piece that ended up ruining everything," explains Mouratoglou, frustrated for not having been there when the Japanese finally showed her best version at this US Open.

"Looking back, I didn't do a good enough job, otherwise, the results would be there. I also think that having me as a coach was a bit heavy for her, having spent so many years with Serena, something she mentioned several times. I never managed to find a way to alleviate that pressure, to make her feel lighter. Surely, without that pressure, she could have expressed herself more freely, but there are no hard feelings, she remains a fierce competitor," he concludes.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Mouratoglou opina sobre el nuevo cuerpo de Serena: “Si hubiera estado así hace unos años…”