Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, credited her strong will and “refusal to lose” for her winning the 2015 French Open title. This was Williams’ third and final title at the clay court Major.
Williams has had a remarkable record at Roland Garros, winning three singles titles – in 2002, 2013, and 2015, as well as two doubles titles, which she won in 1999 and 2010, both times partnering with her sister Venus Williams.
Recently, Serena Williams’ ex-coach Mouratoglou took to social media to share his admiration for her incredible achievements. He highlighted her 2015 French Open title win as particularly impressive because Williams had been battling illness throughout the tournament which made it hard for her to practice or warm up before matches.
He revealed that because of all these hardships, the former World No.1 would only get out of bed to compete and then return home to rest.
With Serena [Williams], I have so many examples of incredible things she’s achieved, but one always stands out for me. It was during Roland Garros, she was very sick. She had 40° fever. She couldn’t even get out of her bed. She didn’t practise at all. She didn’t leave the bed at all. She could not. She was just going from the bed to the tennis court to play her match at Roland Garros and then come back home. She won the tournament without being able to practise, warm-up for the match, or even walk,” Mouratoglou said.
Patrick Mouratoglou also expanded on the extraordinary nature of Williams’ win, noting that she had to compete without proper preparation or even the ability to walk properly. He praised her resilience, recounting how she struggled with dizziness and was unable to go for walks to improve her condition.
The Frenchman stated that despite all the challenges and obstacles her health threw at her, the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s determination to win and her refusal to accept defeat led her to claim the 2015 French Open title.
A few times I came to her apartment, I said, ‘Come with me, let’s walk a little bit, take some fresh air.’ She couldn’t stand up. She was too dizzy, so she had to go back to bed. But she was able to win matches. It’s impossible in the heat. Her will to win was so strong. Her refusal to lose was also so strong that she was finding resources that probably nobody else would have found,” he added.
Mouratoglou continued to praise Serena Williams for teaching him about resilience and turning the impossible into possible through her incredible willpower and determination.
What Serena taught me, what people perceive as the reality, is just what they see. It’s not the reality. The reality is what you’re able to achieve. So a lot of times people will say, ‘This is impossible.’ This thing being impossible is not the reality. It’s their perception of what is the reality. And once Serena has done that, the reality becomes, ‘It is possible,’” Patrick Mouratoglou said.
