Coach Patrick Mouratoglou comes to Serena Williams’s defence after former RG winner says Serena cannot win French Open 2021

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou comes to Serena Williams’s defence after former RG winner says Serena cannot win French Open 2021

Francesca Schiavone and Serena Williams

Serena Williams has gone without a Grand Slam title for over 4 years now and is still waiting for her 24th title that will equal her Grand Slam title record with Margaret Court as the women with the highest Grand Slams.

Serena last won a Grand Slam at the 2017 Australian Open which she won being roughly 8-9 weeks pregnant. Post her pregnancy, Serena managed to reach four more finals, reaching the finals of both Wimbledon and US Open consecutively in 2018 and 2019, but failed to win the finals missing out on her titles.

Serena’s preparation for the 2021 French Open final has not been on how she would have liked it. The former World No. 1 was knocked out in the first round at the WTA Italian Open 2021 and lost in the second round at the WTA Parma Open 2021.

FS Video

With the French Open 2021 approaching quickly, doubts have risen whether Serena can win her 4th singles title at the Roland Garros.

Former French Open winner Francesca Schiavone who won the Singles title at the 2010 event, was one of the first to offer her opinion about Serena William’s chances in France later this month. “Can Serena do it? On the clay? If I have to say something, I say no. But every time I say no something happens.” said Francesca.

Speaking about the comments, Coach Patrick Mouratoglou came to Serena’s defence. “That’s a good summary of the career of Serena. First of all, when people tell her ‘she can’t’, it gives her extra motivation, so please tell Francesca Schiavone to say it louder so I can make sure Serena can hear it!” said Patrick about the former Italian player’s comments.

YouTube video

“Not too worried for Serena” says coach on Serena Williams’ preparation ahead of the French Open 2021

Serena Williams
Serena Williams

Speaking with Sky, Patrick said, “I think she lost because she was not ready, I don’t know, but maybe it was not a good idea to go and play in Parma after losing in Rome because her match in Rome showed a lot of things that still needed to be worked on to be able to compete at the highest level.”

“I think it’s always interesting to play matches because it gives you a clear vision of where you are, so that was good in that way because we know what she still needs to accomplish in order to be ready for Roland Garros.” added Patrick.

Serena Williams came close to another final at the 2021 Australian Open but lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. Speaking on her current form with early exits on Clay and the Grand Slam nearing, Patrick was relaxed about her preparations.

“I’m not worried in general because if she does the job she will be ready. It’s just about doing the job. she’s been able to do things in her career that were in theory not possible because she has this belief that she can achieve anything and that’s such a big strength.” said Patrick.

Serena Williams continues her preparations for the French Open 2021 which starts from the 30th May, 2021.

Also Read: My dream is to face Serena Williams someday, says Iga Swiatek