‘I Don’t Want to Talk About the Past’- Simona Halep Lauds Her New Partnership With Serena Williams’ Former Coach Patrick Mouratoglou

Earlier last month, Simona Halep announced her newest collaboration. The former World No. 1 announced arch-rival Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou as her new coach. Training for four weeks at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, Halep is currently playing her first tournament, the Madrid Open, with Patrick as her coach.

Even though the two have started working together only recently, they have known each other for very a long time, thanks to the on-court rivalry between Serena Williams and Simona Halep. The two have played 11 of the 12 matches with Patrick as Serena’s coach.

Being a coach, it is quite natural to presume that he must have analyzed Halep’s game over the years. Keeping that in mind, recently, during her second-round press conference at the Madrid Open, Halep was asked if she thinks that her current game style is something that Patrick had always thought of.

Simona Halep on Patrick thinking about her current game style earlier

Patrick and Halep have started working together now. However, going down the memory lane, the two have known each other since the 2013 Rome Finals when Serena outplayed Halep in straight sets. During the years that followed, the two met 10 more times. They last played in the 2021 Australian Open quarterfinals.

Opening up on whether Patrick had her playing style in his mind from before, Halep said, “We didn’t talk about the past. We started collaboration with the present, and we build something on this. So I don’t want to talk about the past.”

Halep and Patrick started working together just a month ago. However, her results have already improved. Halep has been in top form at the Madrid Open. Looking at her performance so far, it wouldn’t be wrong to presume that Patrick is having a good influence on the 2-time Grand Slam champion.

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Expressing how her training with Patrick has been so far, Halep said, “I just want to take everything I have now, and his ideas and the way he sees my game, I like it, and I started to believe more and more that I’m able to do it. I will give my best. I trust him 100%. So, we will see how good I can do, how good I can do these things that he’s tell me.”

Halep in Madrid so far

Two-time Madrid champion, Simona Halep has been in roaring form at the 2022 Madrid Open. She kicked off her campaign with a first-round win over Veronika Kudermetova. It was followed by a second-round straight-set win over the 2nd seed Paula Badosa. Winning the first two rounds with ease, she is next to face the 14th seeded Coco Gauf in the third round. 

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