Former world No. 1, Serena Williams will arrive at the 2018 French Open unseeded. She is currently training with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, at his Nice-based academy where he confidently proclaimed that his ward was capable of adding to her 23 Grand Slam titles, even though she has slipped down the ranking to a lowly 453, which means she would be unseeded at Roland Garros.
“Serena will play the French Open to win it. Can she do it? Serena can achieve anything — after being her coach for six years, I’m even more sure of that statement.”
After giving birth to a daughter, Alexis, last year, Williams returned to the circuit in March but showed her rust by losing out to her elder sister, Venus, in the third round and then was subsequently knocked out in the first and second rounds at Indian Wells and in Miami respectively.
Mouratoglou further revealed that Williams’ comeback was impromptu because she was not 100 percent fit, though the return helped to show how much work needed to be done on the training ground.
“Serena clearly came back too early. She was not ready yet but needed to feel the competition, so she decided to play even though she was far from being at 100 percent.
“It was a good experience as she realised all the work that needed to be done in order for her to be really ready.”
And he explained the reasons for forgoing Madrid and Rome: “That is the reason why we decided to skip Madrid and Rome as she needed five weeks to be perfectly ready.”
But will 2018 be the year when Serena Williams erases Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles? The French Open serves off on May 27.
