The way in which phenomenal and accomplished spirits of athletes work can often catch ordinary people from the guard. Why is it that a tennis player such as Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand SLAM champion and former world no. 1, would ever come to a place where she could question her assets?
It always happens, even with the great all-time a subset of the tennis species that Patrick Mouratoglou, the old coach and Tennismedia-Impresario, has spent the majority of his career. He coached the best of the best, Serena Williams, on the site of so many of her greatest triumphs.
In September 2024, three-quarters of the road through her comeback season after she hired her daughter, Shai, Osaka, Mouratogou to replace Wim Fissette. Osaka was reunited with Fissette (who coached her the last summer between 2019 and 2022) to prepare for her return to competitive tennis last January. In the beginning she was a grandmother about the relationship between improvement and outcome. When she came in a point to beat Iga Swiatek during the French Open last year, Osaka was not down: “It is clear that the results are not the result now, but I think I am growing every tournament,” she said in her press conference.
When the results still did not result, Osaka again noticed that she was struggling with her self -confidence and decided to leave the coach with whom she won two of those four Grand Slam titles.
Osaka, 27, has not won a single title with Mouratoglou, but she got very close. She had to retire with a belly injury when she was a set against Clara Tauson in January in the final of the Auckland Classic in Nieuw -Zeeland and she has played her best tennis since she became a mother in the last five months, when her body allowed her to do this.
“I just had to believe much more in myself,” said Osaka on the Australian Open after her second round victory over Karolina Muchova, one of the world’s most gifted players who were opened four months earlier along Osaka in the same phase of the US Open. There in Melbourne, Osaka was talking about winning the last two sets after losing the first 6-1, but she could have talked about how she, when healthy, rediscovered her Swagger and her ability to get the racket out of the hands of her opponents.
That’s not an accident.
In an interview in February from Los Angeles, where he and Osaka prepared for her comeback from that belly injury, Mouratoglou said they have worked on confronting those moments when she feels her faith sliding away and looking for ways to overcome them.
Patrick Mouratoglou with Naomi Osaka on the Australian Open in January. (David Gray / AFP via Getty images)
“You deserve trust with what you do every day in practice,” said Mouratoglou.
After two weeks of hard training, Osaka will try this week to take that Swagger to the BNP Paribas open in Indian Wells, California.
In the interview, Mouratoglou, 54, said that he does not expect anything less from Osaka, a player he says, comes to the field every day with an open mind and a hunger to try something to get better.
All big ones do that.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
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Naomi Osaka and the severity of a superstar at the US Open
How does her injury feel?
She has no pain anymore. We have served, but slowly and gradually. She did the work to try to ensure that she is no longer injured.
What is it like to work with players at her level? How does she relate to Serena Williams?
I don’t compare anyone with Serena. It is very exciting because of her potential. She has the potential to win a lot more slams. Her motivation is very high. Tennis is a great priority and she is willing to come back all the way.
How do you know if you fit well with her?
I don’t know if it fits well – all players are different and as a coach you have to adjust.
Is it different if you coach a superstar instead of some players with whom you have worked who are not at that level?
It is very important if you work with a superstar that you pretend that the player is not superstar. You have to talk to a person in a normal way, as if she was a normal player. If they achieve so much, they have certainties about what they do, but they must be open enough to learn and continue to grow. That is where Naomi is. She really wants to improve. She really takes the advice and gives 100 percent. She’s not afraid. That is the mentality of the champion.
It is interesting that you say that. I thought that people who have won so much in the past think they know how to do it again.
They are champions because they do what is needed to improve; Their ability to rely on the person who works with them to tell them what to do and what is needed. That makes them champion.
Rafa (Nadal) and Novak (Djokovic) have undergone so many technical changes. They see the sport as a race. Everyone improves. That is how Serena saw the world. If you are happy with what you have and don’t try new things, you will be overtaken by others. The progress is by seeing which areas you can get better.
Why is Osaka better than last year?
Her trust is much higher. This comes from what she did during practice. She practices extremely well. She pushes herself. Her game has been won in consistency. A player must be aware of how she feels, even when she feels that she is losing confidence. In the past she did not express it to herself. She lost most of them because she stopped believing and this is not allowed.
We practice competitions. She is aware of what she feels. We talk about it. We are currently working on it. It is fine to have that feeling, it is of course – it is not a shame to be nervous. We just have to be aware of it. It can influence you, but it can’t affect you too much-novak becomes super nervous or angry, but the most important thing is to come back very quickly. Otherwise you lose points and points and points. You have the right to get nervous and to lose trust, but not too much and not too long.
You don’t talk much during games other than small messages of encouragement. Why?
There is not so much to say, unless I see that she does not follow the plan in one way or another. The competition, we prepare it earlier. All I can do is support her.
In the Muchova match in Melbourne, Muchova played great and Naomi had trouble reaching her level. I’ve seen that last year. I found out that when she was in trouble, her reliability level would fall a lot and the game was hit.
Her first tournament in China, she had lost 20 games in a row when she had lost the first set. This time she did not let what happened on the field with her mind. It is impossible not to be influenced by the score. They must be influenced by the score. The question is how much it influences you and has it in a way that you can harm. You want to be hit but remain under control. Keep believing in what you do.
Is that what she did against Muchova?
She stayed mentally there. You’re not leaving. Nobody plays perfectly from the first point to the last.
When you coached Serena, you went against Osaka. Have you shared your old game plans with her?
No. You do not want to strengthen the weaker places. I also don’t think you win by improving your mistakes. You achieve solutions and you make your strengths better. If someone has a good game plan to beat Jannik Sinner, I would like to see it. Players at that level, you have to catch them on a certain day when there are weak spots.
I want my players to know how to make their strengths in weapons: “What is the game style of my player and how do they win points?”
So what are the strengths of Osaka on this point that should be her weapons?
If she is at the top of the game, she plays faster than anyone. She makes it very difficult to organize an end to her. She comes back to you with the ball so short. When the ball touches the racket, it goes so quickly to the other side of the net and she can be very accurate when hitting her stains.
She also has a large space for improvement. She can return better, to be more aggressive with the second Serve, taking the time better from the opponent. The good thing is that she is extremely open to new ideas. I told her what I thought when I arrived and she told me she was very excited to go to work because she believed she was going to learn new things.
Naomi Osaka will hold the Australian Open Trophy after the 2019 final. (Getty Images)
Is that what the best tell you?
Absolute. They forget what they have achieved a minute after they have reached it. Serena ends 2012 and wins Wimbledon and the US Open and the Olympic Games and the WTA Tour Finals. She runs from the field and says that I have to come up with a plan for her to win the French open. She says: ‘I’ve been chasing it for 10 years. I want to win Roland Garros, make a plan for me to win it. (Williams won the French Open 2013.)
The past is the past. It is important not to look at the past. “Let’s go on. Always focus on the trip, where we want to go. That is now Naomi. She is very ambitious. She believes that her story still has to be written. That is important, because when you hold a trophy, it only takes a few minutes. You have to be enthusiastic about what the next step is.
What has tennis changed in recent years?
In general, the fitness level has improved a lot. It is easy to explain. All top players travel with a fitness coach and physiotherapist. It was not true before. The movement of the players is so much better. On the women’s side (Aryna) Sabalenka is moving so well for her height. And then Iga (Swiatek) and Coco (Gauff).
(Carlos) Alcaraz, Sinner, it’s crazy how they move on the field. Even someone like Tomas Machac. It is therefore more difficult to touch winners to get the ball through the field. If Naomi continues to evolve as she is, she can hit so many winners again.
Naomi said she didn’t know if you would actually be a good coach because you had coached Serena and she wondered if Serena even needed coaching. Others sometimes wonder how much impact you have if you coach these greats of all time? How does that influence you?
People who say that don’t know what they are talking about. If I coach Naomi and she doesn’t do something right, I will hear about it. I am not a special pride of coaching champions. For me, if I don’t bring her to her highest level, I didn’t do it well.
(Top photo: David Gray / AFP via Getty images)