Serena Williams has been given some feedback from her former coach Patrick Mouratoglou after making her return to the WTA Tour.
Williams made a winning return to tennis after winning her first round doubles match at Queen’s alongside Victoria Mboko.
There has been a lot of positive feedback directed the way of Williams after playing her first match in nearly four years.
While Mouratoglou also praised Williams, he believes that there are some things that still need work in her game.
Patrick Mouratoglou names three things Serena Williams struggled with in her comeback match
Mouratoglou knows Williams very well, having coached her for 10 years, during which time she won an additional 10 major titles.
When reviewing his former player’s performance at Queen’s on The Big T Podcast, Mouratoglou was full of praise for her serve, forehand and backhand.
However, Mouratoglou suggested that there was still room for improvement on her return, movement and general reaction time, but he backed Williams to improve this as her comeback progresses.
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A legendary return!
“Well, I think the match was interesting,” said Mouratoglou. “First of all, it’s a winning match, so that’s the most important for her. Yeah, she comes back and she wins, even though it’s doubles, I think there was a lot of positives.
“You could see that she didn’t lose her game, the serve was very good. Of course, maybe not as accurate as before, but it’s going to get there. The shots, the forehand, the backhand, they’re all working well.
“I think what is missing and it’s normal because she stayed so four years without competition and probably at least three years without even practicing or just once in a while.
“It’s the movement, it’s the reaction time, it’s the return. I think she struggled a lot on the return. The girls were serving body all the time and she was struggling. But you know, if she feels that match after match, she kind of solves those problems, then she’ll be back.
“As I said before, she will never come back to be No.50 in the world, even though everybody thinks, wow she stopped competition for four years, she has two kids, she’s 44 and she came back to top 50, that’s unbelievable for her. That’s not her. So, I think she wants to feel signs that she’ll be able to beat the best. If she thinks this, she’ll come back playing singles, if not, I don’t think she’ll do it.”
Chanda Rubin agrees with Patrick Mouratoglou’s comments on Serena Williams
Mouratoglou is not the only person who highlighted Williams’ return as a weakness in her first match back.
Former top 10 player Chanda Rubin also pointed this out in her assessment of Williams’ performance, but once again backed her to find more form as she plays more matches.
“Yeah, I think you know the returns and there were a few balls where she kind of overran it,” said Rubin. “She wasn’t quite on balance.”
Former top 30 doubles player Nick Monroe responded, “Was she too quick to the ball?”
Rubin answered, “Like almost too quick. So that’s not a negative actually, but it’s more of just keeping your balance and making sure you don’t get too far out of control for the shot you’re trying to hit.
“I mean this is nit-picking that we’re talking about, because as things went on she started playing better and better. The weapon that her serve is, she can actually serve better, so that’s scary!
“So I would imagine they would go out on the practice court, continue working on that hitting target, spot serving. We saw her serving and volleying, just keep getting those kinds of reps and making those kinds of moves.
“It’s a lot trickier on grass because you need the little steps, you’ve got to stay on balance at all times and so that’s maybe where she can continue to hone her skill set. But I also think that’s just going to come with playing more live matches.”
What do you think Serena Williams needs to do to make her comeback successful?
It is currently up in the air as to when the next match will be for Williams, as her doubles partner Mboko suffered an injury in her singles match and was forced to retire.
Williams has also signed up to play doubles with Karolina Muchova in Berlin next week, as she continues to stay away from the singles court for the time being.
