Serena Williams has not won a single grand slam since her victory at the 2017 Australian Open. Following her victory there, she had geared up well for her 24th grand slam title. The closest Serena came in 2018 at the US Open where she was facing Japanese player Naomi Osaka. However, the player’s coach landed Williams a game penalty as well as a huge fine.

This sent Williams off the charts, and she engaged in an on-court debacle with the chair umpire. Patrick Mouratoglou accepted his mistake but defended it by pointing out the similar behavior of the opponent’s coach.

Patrick Mouratoglou once landed Serena Williams in a trouble during the 2018 US Open finals 

Serena Williams’ ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou could not resist coaching which is against the tennis code of conduct. He gave some hand signals to the player to follow, and this led to Williams getting a code violation. The 23-time grand slam champion confronted the chair umpire in a raging manner, which again led her to get a game penalty. This only added to the agitation of the American player. She had to pay a fine of a whopping $17,000 for this.

Williams denied it all and said, “You owe me an apology.” Furthermore, she demanded an apology from the chair umpire and said, “I have NEVER cheated in my life. I have a daughter and I stand for what is right and I have NEVER cheated.” Her coach Mouratoglou, however, accepted his mistake. He said, “I am honest. I was coaching.” However, he also backed Williams’ claims by saying, “I don’t think she looked one time.”

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Furthermore, he pointed out similar instances by Naomi Osaka’s coach, Sascha Bajin. He said, “Sascha was coaching every point too.”

Off-Court coaching trials

In the second half of 2022, off-court coaching trials are being implemented in various tours. This will go on in the US open too. The coaches are allowed to coach if it does not interrupt the natural flow of the game.

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However, conversations are not permitted and coaches can not even speak to their players when they leave the courts for any reason.