Patrick Mouratoglou, who has worked with Serena Williams since June 2012, helped the world No. 1 change her tactics during the first week of Roland Garros, the American told The Guardian. Williams was pushed to three sets in five of her seven matches before winning her 20th Grand Slam singles title.
"We talk before the match and we have a good plan," said Serena, who has won titles in seven of their 12 Grand Slam tournaments together. "I was unhappy in the beginning of the week and I told [Patrick] ‘Listen, this isn’t working, we need to change something.' We have that relationship where I can tell him, ‘Look, this isn’t great’ and it kind of goes back and forth. I think it’s a pretty good record. We want to get more than seven [Slams together]."
Mouratoglou said that while Serena was seriously ill in Paris, she wasn’t going to withdraw or retire. "Serena has been sick for a while, but she never thought of retiring," he said. "She will go on court even with one leg. She always thinks she can make it. This is her strength, she just can't take it out of her head. This is the big difference between the great champions and the rest."