Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has weighed in on the tennis legend’s return to the Grand Slam stage at the Wimbledon Championships.
Williams played her first women’s singles match in four years and lost to Maya Joint in three sets in the first round of Wimbledon.
Patrick Mouratoglou Analyzes Serena Williams’ Wimbledon Performance
Attempting to make a remarkable return to tennis, Williams accepted a wildcard in both the women’s singles and doubles events. She fought hard in her match on Center Court against Joint, winning the second set in a tiebreaker. However, she ran out of steam towards the end and suffered a 3-6, 7-6 (6), 3-6 defeat.
Mouratoglou, who guided Williams to 10 of her 23 Grand Slam titles, spoke about her return. The French coach praised the 44-year-old for her performance and felt that Joint had to play at the top-20 level to get the win.
“I think Serena was impressive. She’s 44 years old. She hasn’t played a singles match in four years. She has two kids, and she plays that level from the first moment she plays. That’s unbelievable. Second, the girl she played, it’s been a bad year for her. But in that match, she was able to play her best level. I think it took Serena a set-and-a-half to get into the match. She hasn’t played a match in four years, so it’s normal,” Mouratoglou said in a vlog post on Instagram.
Mouratoglou also noted that Williams started to tire in the middle of the set. However, he felt that she showed plenty of encouraging signs in her overall performance, which bodes well for her future.
“Second half of the third set, she started to get tired. She couldn’t keep the same quality until the end. But we learned that she’s able to play at that level. [She needs] to improve a few things. For me, only good news for the future,” he added.
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It remains to be seen whether Williams’ comeback at Wimbledon is a one-off. There has been speculation that she could stick around till the 2028 LA Olympics.
Williams is slated to partner her sister, Venus, in women’s doubles at the Wimbledon Championships. Their first match is scheduled for Saturday. However, a knee injury suffered during her singles match could put her appearance in the doubles tournament in doubt.
