Patrick Mouratoglou reveals some details from his split with Serena Williams

• Tennis News
• Serena Williams

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou said he didn't want to end his partnership with Serena Williams on bad terms and he thinks he was pretty fair toward the 23-time Grand Slam champion. Williams, 40, hasn't played since retiring her Wimbledon first round match last year and nobody knows exactly what the American plans to do next.

In April, Mouratoglou announced he accepted to become the new full-time coach of Simona Halep. "I wanted to be fair to her and not be disappointed at the end of my career," Mouratoglou said. "I went to ask her what she was going to do.

It wasn't very clear to her. I asked her if she wanted to go to Roland Garros. She told me she didn't know. It was six weeks before the tour. I told her I was waiting for her on Monday for training and if she didn't come I would consider myself free."

Mouratoglou was out of coaching for nearly a year

Mouratoglou thought he was done with coaching when Williams decided to take a break, but a few months later, he started missing coaching.

When Halep made an offer, Mouratoglou badly wanted to return to coaching. "After Serena decided to take a break, I confessed to my loved ones that I feel like I'm done with coaching," Mouratoglou said. "I knew that one of my strengths was that I had a lot of enthusiasm for my work.

Without this enthusiasm I can't be a good coach. I felt like I had lost it." Halep has been one of the best players on the WTA Tour for the past decade and Mouratoglou thinks she is a great person too. "I think Simona is incredibly generous in everything she does.

She is a generous woman, in the ordinary sense, but also a generous sportswoman in effort. She is not satisfied with half measures. Courage and resilience also characterize her as a person," Mouratoglou said of Halep.