Serena Williams: Coach Patrick Mouratoglou opens up about split

Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has opened about the end of his partnership with Serena Williams.

Mouratoglou announced earlier in April that he would be working with Simona Halep on a full-time basis, bringing a 10-year coaching relationship with Williams to an end.

While speaking at a sports festival in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, Mouratoglou revealed he made his decision to work with Halep after Williams could not commit to playing at Roland-Garros.

“I wanted to be fair to her and not be disappointed at the end of my career,” he 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 [WTA] 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 admitted he even considered stepping back from coaching.

“After Serena decided to take a break, I confessed to my loved ones that I feel like I’m done with coaching.

“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.”

Instead, Mouratoglou agreed to work with Halep after the Romanian spent time at his coaching academy before Indian Wells.

The 30-year-old Halep is a two-time Grand Slam champion but last won a major at Wimbledon in 2019. She will be aiming to rise back up the world rankings under Mouratoglou’s guidance.

“I asked to work with Patrick because I really want to get back to the top, and I felt like he’s the best person to help me to do that,” Halep told Tennis Majors in April.

“I was lucky that he was actually available to do it with me. I want to get back