Mouratoglou: "Serena Williams is getting closer and closer to 100% fitness"

• Tennis News
• Serena Williams

Serena Williams has been missing the Slam title since 2017 and in 2019 she was defeated in both finals played respectively at Wimbledon and the US Open. At the Australian Open in Melbourne, the former World number 1 defeated Anastasia Potapova and Tamara Zidanšek in the first and second rounds respectively in straight sets, before falling to Wang Qiang in three tight sets in the third round.

In a recent interview, her coach Patrick Mouratoglou spoke about the conditions of the 23-time Grand Slam champion. “She’s getting closer and closer to 100 percent fitness, but I don’t think she’s there yet.

It’s important to feel that your fitness is at a high enough level to enable you to get a lot of balls back if you run into trouble in the rallies,” said Mouratoglou. “Serena Williams has played in seven Grand Slam tournaments and reached the finals of four of them, losing on each occasion.

In none of them did we see the Serena who had won 23 Grand Slam singles titles before she took a 14-month break to have her first child. People ask me whether Serena is playing enough tournaments away from the Grand Slam events.

Of course, playing and winning matches can only give you confidence. But I don’t feel that a lack of confidence has been the problem for her. You don’t win quarter-finals and semi-finals in the way that she has without feeling confident. Similarly, there has been no problem with her level of tennis going into these finals”.