Pregnant Serena’s in a hurry to play on
Retire? Williams plans to defend Australian Open, reveals coach Mouratoglou
LIFE is pretty good for Serena Williams right now. She has 23 Grand Slams, is engaged after a whirlwind romance and has a baby on the way.
But her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou reveals there is one thing bothering her.
‘She would love to be able to play tennis and have the baby at the same time,’ he says. ‘ If anyone could do it, she would be the one.’
Well, actually, she can do both. Williams may not be able to defend her Wimbledon title but she is still, at more than six months pregnant, getting out on court.
‘She played yesterday… and the day before,’ says Mouratoglou. ‘In her mind she’s back as soon as she can.’
Williams announced in April that she was 20 weeks pregnant; the father is fiance Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social media site Reddit. As people did the sums, they realised with awe that Serena had been pregnant when she won the Australian Open without dropping a set.
Even Mouratoglou didn’t know she was pregnant in Melbourne. ‘She told me just before she said it publicly, maybe one or two weeks before,’ says the Frenchman, who has coached Williams to 10 Grand Slam titles in five years.
‘I was not so surprised because I knew it was very important to her to be a mother so I knew it would happen [but] I didn’t know it would happen then.’
Many assumed the American, at 35, having just overtaken Steffi Graff’s Open Era record for most Grand Slam titles, would hang up the racket that she has wielded like a wrecking ball for almost two decades. But M oura tog lou confirmed Williams is targeting the Australian Open in January for a potential return, though she may feel differently once the baby arrives.
‘The gameplan is to listen to the doctors and see when she will be ready to compete again. If it’s for the Australian Open, that’s great. Believe me, if there is even a small opportunity to play there, she will.
‘She is 100 per cent sure she wants to come back. The only question mark is because she has never had a child and it changes a lot of things in a woman’s life.’
Williams’ name was back in the news this week after John McEnroe claimed she would be ranked 700 in the world on the men’s tour. Mouratoglou gives short shrift to the seven-time major winner’s comments. ‘As much as I have respect for McEnroe I don’t think it’s interesting to know how good a woman would be in the men’s game,’ he says. ‘Would you compare men and women’s 100 m?’ We meet Mouratoglou at a restaurant i n Wimbledon village. He is promoting his book, The Coach, which charts the story of a shy Frenchman prone to anxiety attacks as a child who turned down a job in his father’s renewable energy company to launch a tennis school. The Mouratoglou Academy grew to be one of the biggest and most prestigious in the world.
His greatest work, of course, has been with the American legend. When Serena came calling, she had not won a Grand Slam for two years. While her hunt for major No 24 is on hold, the pressure is on the rest to make hay while the sun shines, before the shadow of Serena descends again.
‘They can think, “It’s the chance of my life to win a Slam”,’ says Mouratoglou. ‘So much extra pressure is not so easy to deal with.’