{blackbabes} Serena Williams and 'Le Coach' Seek a New Wimbledon Triumph

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/sports/tennis/serena-williams-and-le-coach-seek-a-new-wimbledon-triumph.html?ref=yfp&_r=0

Wimbledon, true to Rudyard Kipling's famous words inscribed at the All England Club, has indeed been the scene of triumph and disaster for Serena Williams and her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.

They triumphed there in 2012, in their first tournament together. Mouratoglou exchanged sharp words with Williams's father during the tournament, rejected her silent treatment at one point and then helped her overcome some shaky early rounds and click into an irresistible gear to win the title.

Last year came the tennis disaster. Williams was shocked in the third round by Alizé Cornet and then bizarrely staggered around the grass in a doubles match with her sister Venus, crying during an on-court medical exam and then retiring after three disquieting games.

Williams has attributed the incident to a virus and not having a "quit button." Others continue to believe there was an emotional component. Mouratoglou is reluctant to revisit the situation but has said Williams was "in a difficult phase" at the time.

But Williams has made a habit of returning to, and transcending, the scene of Grand Slam trouble. See her victory at the French Open in 2013, a year after the stunning first-round loss to Virginie Razzano that had set in motion her outreach to Mouratoglou.

"Well, I think she'll have a bit of stress going back to Wimbledon, as she did at the French Open," Mouratoglou said last week. "She had a lot of stress. So I think it will be the same thing again, but she'll get past it. That's what she does."

There is no doubt that Williams was a great tennis player before Mouratoglou, the ambitious Frenchman with the salt-and-pepper stubble, became her coach and, according to reports, her on-again, off-again boyfriend.

But there is also no denying that with his support and presence in the players' box, she has put together the most productive three-year stretch of her career, adding tactical and technical variety to her power game.

"He's a great coach, and I'm a great student, and we push each other," Williams said.

Since they joined forces in June 2012, Williams has compiled a 193-14 record, winning seven of 12 Grand Slam tournaments and going 7-0 in Grand Slam finals. She also has won 18 other tour singles titles and two Olympic gold medals — in singles and in doubles with Venus — and has had her longest stay at No. 1, which extended into its 124th consecutive week as Wimbledon begins Monday.

"It was really my goal, during the period in which she worked with me, that we'd be able to make a real difference compared with what came before," Mouratoglou said. "I wanted things to be even better, fully aware that we were starting from a lofty place, considering that she already had 13 Grand Slam singles titles. So of course I'm pleased, but I try not to linger on it. By looking back, you stop moving forward."

There is good reason to look ahead. At the advanced tennis age of 33, Williams has a shot at the calendar-year Grand Slam after winning the Australian and French Opens.

"It's probably the only thing she hasn't done yet," Mouratoglou said. "But we're only at the halfway point. The road is still long. I'd rather talk about it after Wimbledon."

Slam or no Slam, Steffi Graf's Open era record of 22 major singles titles is clearly in reach now that Williams has 20. Her run at the French Open sometimes bore more resemblance to a stagger as she played through a fever and the lingering effects of an elbow problem that affected her serve, her signature shot.

It has been that kind of season for Williams, who also fought through illness to win the Australian Open in January. There are two schools of thought in light of her three-setters and winning ugly in 2015. Either the gap is closing, or the fact that Williams can still secure the biggest titles despite being diminished is a reminder of how wide the gap remains.

Mouratoglou said the illnesses at the Grand Slam tournaments this year could be related to stress.

"We know that stress lowers your immune system," he said. "We have not yet found the solution. If she were ill all the time, I'd be more worried. But since January, she's been sick twice, during the Australian Open and French Open. So it's difficult not to see a link."

Neither Williams nor Mouratoglou will publicly confirm their romantic involvement. Whatever their relationship's status at the moment, Mouratoglou said, he is able to focus on the essential as a coach.

"I am still able to step back, and I manage well not to mix everything together," he said.

Mouratoglou, 45, is a middle-aged man in a hurry. His uncommon drive is detailed in his autobiography, "Le Coach," published in French last month with an introduction by Williams.

In the book, he describes his path from undersized, anxiety-ridden, pathologically shy adolescent to an outspoken mentor of the stars. He was so overwrought that he would sometimes vomit 10 times a night.

"The memory of those exhausting nights still haunts me today," he wrote.

He said he overcame it all thanks to will power and 10 years of psychoanalysis.

Has building his eponymous tennis academy and succeeding with Williams filled the void he once felt?

"Surely a big part of it," he said. "But the motor is not switched off. That's for sure. I have a problem doing things for a long time when I have the impression that I am in control of the situation. What I like most is to be in a period of discovery and searching for solutions."

It should come as no surprise that Mouratoglou was a risk-taking serve-and-volleyer on the tennis court. A promising junior, he was limited by his slow physical maturation and, in his view, the lack of a top-flight coach.

Mouratoglou also said he long suffered in the shadow of his father, who was born in Greece, attended the elite École Polytechnique in France and became a brilliant businessman, making a fortune in renewable energy.

When Mouratoglou approached his parents at age 15 and said he wanted to pursue a tennis career, he was told he needed to finish his studies first. He responded by quitting the game, but then he rebelled. In "Le Coach," he tells of being expelled from three schools and summed up his existence as "alcohol, all-nighters, cigarettes, violence and sex."

"I think frustration is the best motor there is," Mouratoglou said.

In 1997, he convinced his father to back him financially as he expanded his nascent academy, which eventually found a home near Paris. He has moved it, with more financing organized by his father, to Biot on the French Riviera.

Williams's image features prominently on the academy grounds and website, and Mouratoglou is billing it as Europe's largest tennis academy, with 34 courts, 130 full-time players, 20 coaches, five physical trainers and a lot more sunshine than in the Paris suburbs.

In its early years, Mouratoglou's academy bore the name of the prominent Australian coach Bob Brett, who had worked with Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic and who gave Mouratoglou the brand recognition he needed.

Private academies in France have long been overshadowed by the public sector, with the French Tennis Federation dominating player development. But Mouratoglou offered another model, learning from Brett, with whom he parted on acrimonious terms.

Other high-profile coaches would come and go, including the Australian Tony Roche and the Swiss champion Martina Hingis. But Mouratoglou is a high-profile coach himself now, even if he is a divisive figure in the game.

"If you are looking for words of praise, look elsewhere," said the veteran Croatian player Ivo Karlovic, who trained at Mouratoglou's academy early on.

Mouratoglou has been vocal about the need for improvement in French tennis and expressed dismay last year that the federation had not sought his help.

"Let him prove it by developing players," the French star Richard Gasquet told the French sports daily L'Équipe. "Serena is not too complicated."

Mouratoglou rejected that.

"People who say that, it's clearly a total lack of understanding of the coaching profession," he said. "Imagining it's easier with a No. 1 than with others — it's actually more difficult."

He has yet to develop a champion from the junior level into a major singles winner, but he and the coaches at his academy have certainly trained prominent players, including Marcos Baghdatis, the Cypriot who came on scholarship at age 14 and reached the 2006 Australian Open final before severing ties with the academy.

Mouratoglou has worked directly with, among others, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, Aravane Rezai and Jérémy Chardy of France, and Grigor Dimitrov, the young Bulgarian star.

"I love players who are in difficult spots, and practically all my coaching stories start with a player having difficulty," Mouratoglou said.

Williams said she was impressed by Mouratoglou's results with Wickmayer and Rezai. She appreciated, when she went to train at his academy, that he approved of her open-stance groundstrokes. She said he reminded her of her father, her lifelong coach.

She eventually asked Mouratoglou to help at Wimbledon in 2012. So it began, though not without growing pains.

Mouratoglou said Richard Williams had approached him after Serena's shaky three-set victory in the fourth round that year and asked accusingly, "What's wrong with her?"

"He worked with her for 30 years, and for me, it had been one week, and he asked me what's wrong with her?" Mouratoglou said. "Not bad."

The tense conversation continued. In Mouratoglou's mind, Richard Williams was testing him, just as he said Serena tested him later in the tournament by being sullen and uncommunicative during a practice session.

When it ended with her using her phone in her chair, Mouratoglou said in "Le Coach," he struck her hat to get her attention and told her: "With me, there are rules to respect. One, when you arrive in the morning, you say hello. Two, when I speak to you, you look at me and you answer."

"It was a key moment because I established a relationship where I had authority and there was respect," Mouratoglou said. "I think that was indispensable."

Three years and seven Grand Slam titles later, Williams and Mouratoglou are back for another Wimbledon.

More triumph? Or more disaster?