"If I name Serena Williams, Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Sinner, give me 5 things in common... I don't think talent is one" - Patrick Mouratoglou
Serena Williams' former coach Patrick Mouratoglou spoke about how talent could not be an asset. The 54-year-old said that it was a very minor quality compared to others.
Mouratoglou is among the most notable tennis coaches on the planet and has coached several notable players apart from Williams, namely, Simona Halep, Holger Rune and most recently, Naomi Osaka.
The Frenchman recently took to Instagram and spoke about the effects of talent in tennis. Mouratoglou stated that talent could be the exact opposite of an asset in the sport, adding that it hurt a player's ability to fight during a match.
"It hurts your ability to fight and victory becomes less important than keeping your talent. The truth is, the only way to win is with work," the 54-year-old said.
Mouratoglou also spoke about a "game" which he played with Holger Rune, in which, he asked the Dane to name five common factors between Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
"I played this little game with Holger. I told him if I name Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, (Carlos) Alcaraz, (Jannik) Sinner, give me five things that they have in common. I don't think talent it one of things. I'm not saying they don't talent, I'm just saying that's a minor quality compared to all the other ones," the Frenchman said.
The 54-year-old also said that one had to put in a lot of effort if they needed to be great at something, adding that if someone did not have any other option other than to work hard, they would have a similar approach to everything else.
"It gives bad habits to people to be talented, because the truth is, again, to be great at something, you'll have to put enormous effort. If you learn to work extremely hard because you have no other option, this attitude you will carry in everything you do," Mouratoglou said.
Patrick Mouratoglou on how he countered Serena Williams' attempt to intimidate him
Mouratoglou featured in the fifth episode of the ESPN documentary on Serena Williams "In the Arena: Serena Williams", and spoke about how the former player attempted to intimidate him by not even acknowledging him when he said "good morning". The Frenchman also spoke on how he responded to the American's actions by hitting her cap "very hard".
"Serena loves to intimidate people. She loves it. And she was trying to intimidate me that day. It was the first day of practice in Wimbledon. I'm waiting on the court for practice. She enters the court. I say, 'good morning', and she passes like this. Zero emotion on her face. She doesn't even look at me," Mouratoglou said.
"If I let her do that first day, I'm done and I know it. She has a cap, and I hit the cap really hard. Not her head, but just this (protruding part of) the cap, and I hit it so hard that the cap goes like this on her face, and she's shocked. I'm sure that nobody ever did this to Serena. No one. And especially not a guy who knows her for a few days," he added.
Serena Williams and Patrick Mouratoglou forged one of the strongest player-coach partnerships in tennis history, as they won ten Grand Slam singles titles (two Australian Open, two French Open, three Wimbledon, three US Open) and an Olympic singles gold (London 2012), among other honors. The two parted ways in 2022.
Serena Williams' tennis came to an end in 2022, with that year's US Open being her last tournament. The American reached the third round of the women's singles event before losing to Ajla Tomljanovic. She also competed in the doubles event alongside her sister Venus Williams, and the pair suffered a first-round exit to Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.
Less than a year after her retirement from tennis, Williams gave birth to her second daughter, Adira River, six years after her first daughter Olympia was born. The 43-year-old is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.