Patrick Mouratoglou Talks About the “Fights” with Serena Williams Over Weight After Her First Pregnancy

Patrick Mouratoglou reveals he advised Serena Williams to drop some weight due to tennis reasons after her first pregnancy, and admits that one didn’t sit pretty well with the American tennis legend and led to “a few fights.”

After winning her 23rd Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open while a few weeks pregnant, Williams didn’t play again until 2018 March. It didn’t long for the American to find great form again, but she surprisingly lost back-to-back Slam finals at Wimbledon (Angelique Kerber) and the US Open (Naomi Osaka). She made another two Major finals before retiring (2019 Wimbledon and 2019 US Open), but never again won a Grand Slam title.

Mouratoglou, who started working with Williams in mid-2012, won 10 Grand Slams with the American through the next five years.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Mouratoglou shared that he told Williams she should lose some weight after giving birth – not because he had something against her looks – but because it could negatively impact her mobility and things required for her to be at the very best.

Mouratoglou: Williams didn’t like when I said that, she thought I was judging her…

“In Serena’s case, she was older – so of course the body is not going to bounce back the same as before, and the risk of injury is even bigger. We had a few fights about it. I remember she did not like when I said that because she thought I was judging her. But I kept telling her, I don’t care about your look. It’s not my job. My job is your tennis. If you want to come back to the top and make history, then we have to be very efficient on every level – including this one, which for me was the key element,” the French coach added.

Recently, Williams revealed that she uses a weight loss medication and that she dropped 31 pounds or 14 kilograms. Asked if he would have preferred to have this version of the American six years ago, Mouratoglou said he “has no regrets” but also added that her results “would have been better.”