Marcos Baghdatis former coachPatrick Mouratoglou is apparently going out with tennis star Serena Williams
Williams’s career appeared to be unwinding when she went out to the little-known Virginie Razzano in the French Open 12 months ago and turned to Mouratoglou, who runs his eponymous academy on the outskirts of Paris that has seen many players come through its doors, including Laura Robson for a spell.
Since teaming up with him, Williams has won Wimbledon, the Olympics and US Open and much of this must be put down to the influence of the debonair 42-year-old.
Patrick Mouratoglou (born 8 June 1970) is a French tennis coach.
He founded the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in 1996 and has coached many up-and-coming players, including Marcos Baghdatis (whom he coached to the final of the 2006 Australian Open), Julia Vakulenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aravane Rezaï, Jérémy Chardy, Laura Robson, Yanina Wickmayer and Grigor Dimitrov.
As of June 2013, Mouratoglou is the current coach of Serena Williams.
Coaching career
Mouratoglou started coaching ATP player Marcos Baghdatis in 1999 when Mouratoglou invited him to his Tennis Academy in France in October 1999 on a one-week basis. Baghdatis was, according to Mouratoglou, “not an athlete at all”, however within seven years he would become a junior World No. 1, win the 2003 Australian Open boys’ title, reach the final of the same tournament in 2006 and reach the World’s top ten.
In July 2007 he started coaching Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Within two years, Pavlyuchenkova reached the World’s Top 30 and has since made two Grand Slam quarter-finals and reached a career high ranking of World No. 13. They ended their association in August 2009, and Mouratoglou moved onto coaching both Aravane Rezaï and Yanina Wickmayer. Rezaï enjoyed a successful 2010 season, entering the World’s Top 20 and winning the Premier event in Madrid whilst Wickmayer reached a career high ranking of World No. 12 in April 2010. Mouratoglou stopped working with both Rezaï and Wickmayer in August 2010 and April 2012 respectively.
In December 2010, Mouratoglou started coaching Laura Robson, who was World No. 217 at the time and still struggling to break into the senior tour.[8] They worked together for six months before separating shortly before Wimbledon in 2011, when Robson was still struggling to make any progress on the WTA Tour, having slipped further to World No. 257. During this same period, Mouratoglou also coached Jérémy Chardy within his academy.
In March 2012, Mouratoglou started coaching Grigor Dimitrov and set about guiding him back into the world’s Top 100, having dropped to World No. 102 by the time he started. This association ended in June that year and Mouratoglou moved on to his present job, coaching Serena Williams.
By the time Mouratoglou started coaching Williams, she had just suffered her first ever opening round defeat in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, losing in the first round of the 2012 French Open. Since then, Mouratoglou has guided Williams to her fifth Wimbledon title, the Olympic Gold Medal, her fourth US Open title, her second French Open title, the annual year-end championships and also lifted her back to World No. 1 in the WTA rankings