Coach Patrick Mouratoglou had an honest conversation with Serena Williams before accepting Simona Halep’s job offer.
Halep, a former world No. 1, showed interest in working with Mouratoglou.
Mouratoglou couldn’t accept the offer at first as he is listed as the coach of Williams.
Since Williams hasn’t played since Wimbledon, Mouratoglou hasn’t coached in a while.
During the Indian Wells Masters, Mouratoglou went to the United States, where he met with 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams.
During their conversation, Mouratoglou admitted to Williams that coaching is his passion and that he badly wants to coach again.
“I missed it big time. Coaching is the passion of my life. It’s the job of my life. And when I went to see Serena to discuss before starting with Simona, that’s what I told her. I said, ‘Coaching is the passion of my life and it’s difficult for me not to work.’ So yes, I missed coaching big, big time. Honestly, since I’m back to coaching with Simona, I cannot be happier to coach this again. It’s an incredible satisfaction for me to do that job. It’s incredible,” Mouratoglou told Tennis Majors.
Mouratoglou feels he and Halep can do well
Before Indian Wells, Halep came to the Mouratoglou Academy for a week of training block.
Halep is one of the most accomplished players from the active group as she is a Grand Slam champion and has been ranked at No. 1 in the world.
Halep is 30 but feels she can do more in the game.
“The connection honestly went super fast; I would say the first two hours we discussed. Sometimes you feel the connection straight away. Sometimes it takes long. In Simona’s case, it was instantly, really. She was very open with me. So that was easy, in a way. She made my job easy in being open and giving me the feeling that she’s willing to work and fully commit to what we’re going to do,” Mouratoglou added.