Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have recently crossed paths at the Miami Open.
Djokovic was watched by Williams in his fourth round match at the Miami Open, which was his best performing tournament of the year so far after finishing as runner-up.
However, things have not gone so well for him since then, with Djokovic losing to Matteo Arnaldi at the Madrid Open to continue his winless clay court season.
Since then, Djokovic has withdrawn from the Italian Open, confirming that he will go into Roland Garros without any match wins on clay this year.
Patrick Mouratoglou claims Novak Djokovic is suffering with the same problem that Serena Williams had
Andy Murray is Djokovic’s coach and has been since the start of the year, with the former rivals producing mixed results together so far.
Someone who knows about coaching at the top of the game is Patrick Mouratoglou, who is working with Naomi Osaka currently and has previously mentored the aforementioned Serena Williams for the best part of 10 years.
When speaking to the Tennis Channel, Mouratoglou re-lived some of his times coaching Williams and even revealed that she was close to retiring after losing in the first round of Roland Garros in 2012.
After refinding form to win multiple more major titles, Mouratoglou admitted that Williams struggled to find motivation as she had less goals to chase.
This was particularly relevant for Williams at the 2015 US Open, where she was going for a 22nd major title and the Calendar Grand Slam.
Mouratoglou has compared this to Djokovic’s current situation, questioning what he has left to achieve in the sport.
“Yes, she lost in the first round of Roland Garros, but also two years without winning a Grand Slam, which is a lot for Serena,” said Mouratoglou. “She told me, ‘I just want to win one more and potentially end my career’.
“Because she was not playing great for two years. I mean, not to her standards, let’s say it like this. So it was a short term thing at the time, but because she won Wimbledon and right after two gold medals, singles and doubles at the Olympics. And then again at the US Open, and then at the WTA championship at the end of the season. And then she completely forgot about potentially retiring.
“And then it was a lot about motivation, after she won several more we talked about the record of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and the goal was to beat this one, and then of course after Steffi Graf.”
“It’s funny, because two months, or one month before the US Open when she would, if she would have won it by the way, tie Steffi at that time. She said to me, ‘Okay what’s next. Because once I do that, what am I going to do?’ So that always chasing something for her was very important.
“She always had a big goal in mind that was motivating her, because of course it is difficult to imagine how it feels to win so many Grand Slams, but I guess the motivation at some point.
“And we see it with Novak now, that’s his big struggle. It’s not about his tennis, it’s just about him being…it’s very obvious when he plays matches and probably when he practices. Yeah, what’s his goal now that he found out how to win more Slams than how two big rivals which were Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal]?”
Djokovic won Olympic gold at the Paris Games last year to claim the only significant title in the sport that he was yet to win.
Patrick Mouratoglou reveals the ‘weird’ way he began coaching Serena Williams
Mouratoglou became Serena Williams’ coach after her first round loss at the 2012 edition of Roland Garros, but the Frenchman has now revealed that it was completely by accident.
At the time he was coaching Grigor Dimitrov, but after helping Williams win her first major title in two years at Wimbledon he moved over to her team.
“The way she found me was quite weird, because she was not looking for a coach, she was looking for a place to practise in Paris after her loss in the first round,” explained Mouratoglou.
“She knew me just a little bit, she knew I had an academy in Paris, at that time I was not in the South of France. So she called me to have a court and two hitting partners, which I did and I was standing next to the court.
“And after 45 minutes hitting she suddenly turned to me, I was stood outside the court and she said ‘Talk to me.’ I didn’t expect it, so I talked to her, I told her the things that I was seeing and then she said ‘Can we work on it?’.
“So I stepped on the court and I started to work on it. That’s literally how it started. And I was at that time coaching Dimitrov, and she asked me once in Wimbledon, she called me and she said ‘Would you do that tournament with me?’. I said I will ask Grigor if he was fine with it. Grigor said yes and that’s really how it started.”
During their 10-year partnership, Mouratoglou helped Williams add 10 more Grand Slam titles to her trophy cabinet.
The last of those came at the 2017 Australian Open, where Serena beat sister Venus Williams in the final.
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