Serena Williams’ Coach Reacts To Her Recent Losses: We Have To Accept The Fact That This Is Not Working, Maybe Come Back With A Different Angle

Serena Williams, Patrick Mouratoglou

Serena Williams’ Coach Reacts To Her Recent Losses: We Have To Accept The Fact That This Is Not Working, Maybe Come Back With A Different Angle

Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou is getting real about the star’s return to tennis. Serena Williams took a break from the sport after she and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, giving birth to their daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., on Sept. 1, 2017.

Serena Williams and daughter Alexis

Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been coaching Serena Williams since 2012 says,

“We have to accept the fact that it is not working. Maybe come back with a different angle, a different strategy and different goals so she can make it.”

He added,

“She does feel positive, she feels negative too because it is a failure when she doesn’t win a Grand Slam. We have to face reality, but she is positive that she can make it otherwise she probably wouldn’t be on a tennis court anymore. She believes she can make it and I believe it too. She’s not that far, but we have to change a few things.”

He said of her Australian Open performance,

“We didn’t expect at all to be losing so early, or to be losing at all. She had everything to retire, 23 Grand Slam titles. But she decided to come back, she decided to make all the efforts, the physical efforts, the mental efforts, to come back to the game, with the goal to score more Grand Slams and beat the all-time record. It’s difficult to know how many chances she will have, I don’t know how long she is going to be able to play, but being able to reach four Grand Slam finals says a lot about her level, and she’s not that far.”

Her level is good enough but we have to understand what is going on and why she is not able to win one. There is a big difference between reaching a final and winning one.”

He and Serena Williams have won 10 Grand Slams together.

Serena Williams also addressed her recent loss. She said during a news conference at the Australian Open that she’s become better at masking her disappointment when she loses a game. She said, according to Yahoo! Sports,

“I am just a better actress, as I always say now. I’m no happier than I was 10 years ago. But I just have to pretend like I don’t want to punch the wall, but in reality I do.”

She continued,

“I made a lot of errors. I didn’t hit any of those shots in New York or in general in a really long time. So that’s good news. I just made far too many errors to be a professional athlete today.”

Still, she took home her first win in 3 years at the Auckland Classic in January. That marked her 73rd title in the WTA so far.

We’re all rooting for Serena Williams to dominate the court again!