“Serena Williams had forgotten winning Roland Garros” Coach Patrick Mouratoglou shares an incredible story about the American’s quest for winning the French Open
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Serena Williams and Patrick Mouratoglou
Former World No. 1 Serena Williams is one of the greatest champions the sport of tennis has ever seen. With titles including the Grand Slams in all three disciplines along with Olympic medals as well, the 40-year old is undoubtedly one of the most influential and famous ambassadors of tennis in tennis.
Serena is the second most successful tennis player in the singles discipline with 23 Grand Slam titles to her name, one short of Margaret Court‘s tally of 24 majors, the most by any player. Serena won her 23rd Slam at the 2017 Australian Open and since then has played 4 more major finals but has lost all of them in straight-sets, her worst streak in Grand Slam finals ever.
After winning her 4th Wimbledon title at the 2010 Wimbledon, her 13th major, Serena had a poor outing in the remainder of the season and the next season, reaching only 1 major final, the 2011 US Open but lost it in straight-sets having played only 6 tournaments in an injury-marred season. She hired French coach Patrick Mouratoglou as her head coach after September 2012 with the major intention of winning the French Open, with her only title till then coming in 2002.
“This story about Serena is incredible. We started in 2012 and she was in trouble at the time. She then started winning: she wins Wimbledon, the US Open and then the Masters at the end of the year. At that point, she revealed to me that she was having a hard time winning Roland Garros, and she would have liked to do it,” started Mouratoglou.
“Serena Williams chased the title for 11 years”: Patrick Mourtaoglou
Patrick’s addition to the Serena camp was a blessing as she reached her first French Open finals in 10-years with the last final appearance being her title run in 2002. In their very first full season, Patrick guided Serena to the finals of the 2013 French Open and it was against one of her most bitter rivals, Maria Sharapova whom Serena would go on to defeat in straight-sets.
“We win the Roland Garros the following year, 11 years after her last success. About her, she won in 2002 and then not once until 2013. After the awards ceremony, she was stretching and I was with her. She turned to me after literally five minutes and said: Okay, now we have to win Wimbledon. She had already forgotten Roland Garros, the title she had chased for 11 years. This is really an example of the champion mentality.
“I have been lucky enough to work with many great players and champions. And I’m friends with great champions too, and I can clearly say that they don’t think the same way as other people at all. They have a different way of thinking. One of the things that make a difference is that they are never satisfied with what they have. They have this constant will to achieve more and the level of expectation for themselves and for the team is much higher,” said Mouratoglou in a recent interview with Joe Pompliano.
Serena would later go on to win her 3rd French Open title at the 2016 French Open when she went on to capture 3 Slams only to miss out on the 2016 US Open where she lost in the semi-finals.
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Sarthak Shitole
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