Coach Patrick Mouratoglou has revealed he issued an ultimatum to Serena Williams over her lack of tennis this year.
Serena Williams appears to have taken a very clear step back from tennis now. Although she is not officially retired, she has not played a match since limping out of the first round at Wimbledon last year.
That left Mouratoglou in limbo, although he has since resumed his coaching work with Simona Halep.
He, though, has spoken about his frustrations with Serena in the end, especially about what he saw as indecision within her about her future.
“I wanted to be fair to her and not be disappointed at the end of my career,” Mouratoglou said at the Cluj Polyvalent sports festival, as reported by Gazeta Sporturilor.
“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 also went into what that meant for him personally, and revealed it Serena Williams’ decision left him questioning his own future in tennis.
“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.”
Serena Williams has previously said she intended to make her comeback at Wimbledon this year, but she is not on the entry list and is showing no signs of making plans to play the tournament.
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