WATCH: Patrick Mouratoglou Fine Tunes Serena Williams’ Unreadable Serve Ahead of French Open 2021

Published 05/26/2021, 9:06 AM EDT

Serena Williams is preparing very hard for the bid to win her 24th Grand Slam title at French Open 2021. She is in Europe practicing on clay courts with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. The 23-time Grand Slam champ already has an accomplished serve and a few more tweaks could make it even more potent on clay.

Mouratoglou has been posting snippets of his practice with Serena. Now during a service drill, Mouratoglou was tweaking her serve. The coach asked Williams to use her legs to get more momentum on the ball.

“Just before you accelerate your hand to hit the ball just before the moment you’re ready to accelerate that’s the moment you push. You’re here, you’re ready to accelerate. Push on your legs and you so raise your hand at the same time.”

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Along with the tennis practice, Serena has been exploring other events near South France. Recently, she was seen at the fourth installment of Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS). UTS is the brainchild of Mouratoglou and was recently played on the clay courts of his academy. Serena was present at the event, along with her daughter Olympia Ohanian.

Moreover, on the earlier weekend, Serena got the honor of waving the checkered flag at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. She was even interviewed during the post-race interview as she congratulated Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen on his victory.

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Serena Williams’ unconvincing return on the clay court

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On the tennis side, Serena finds herself in a precarious situation. She is low on match practice and had recently returned from a long injury break. Her return at Italian Open 2021 was cut short in her first match itself. Later, her team made a quick decision to play at WTA Parma. The results weren’t fruitful, as she suffered another quick defeat. Patrick Mouratoglou admitted making a mistake by playing in Parma.

“I think she lost because she was not ready. I don’t know, but maybe it was not a good idea to go and play in Parma after losing in Rome because her match in Rome showed a lot of things that still needed to be worked on to be able to compete at the highest level,” he said.

Given Serena has played only three matches prior to French Open 2021, she will obviously won’t be considered a huge favorite for the title. Let’s see if Mouratoglou can change Serena’s fortunes.

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Written by:

Bhavishya Mittal is a tennis author for EssentiallySports, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Manipal University. A former sports editor for The Manipal Journal, Bhavishya has also worked for The New Indian Express. He has a keen eye for many sports but he is a particularly ardent follower of tennis, with a zest to create riveting articles on the ever-evolving sport.

WATCH: Patrick Mouratoglou Fine Tunes Serena Williams’ Unreadable Serve Ahead of French Open 2021

Serena Williams’ unconvincing return on the clay court

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