Is 'love' the secret behind Serena's renewed success?

Serena Williams and Patrick Mouratoglou have found love and success

A little more than a year ago, Serena Williams was in the throes of self doubt, grappling with the ebb and tide of her motivational juices. The imposing American suffered an uncharacteristic three-set defeat at the hands of Virginie Razzano in the first round of the French Open. But fortunately, it was an exit that helped the younger Williams discover the path to glorious redemption. Grigor Dimitrov, her boyfriend around the time, had introduced her to a certain Patrick Mouratoglou whose tennis academy is only a 30 minute drive from Paris. Disappointed with her showing at Roland Garros, Serena checked into the academy looking to knock a few balls and seek a few answers.

The short drive to the academy was to prove therapeutic, and not merely to her tennis. It was a meeting that sparked a fire that would alter the course of a woman’s career and the man’s life. At 31, it appeared that Serena might be ready to fade into the winter of her tennis career and enjoy the pursuit of her many eclectic interests outside the WTA circus.

Instead, Mouratoglou awakened the dormant spirit inside her soul to help script a story of revivalism that was hard to predict even for God. The thirteen-time Grand Slam champion stoked her energies in the fire of Mouratoglu’s mentorship to produce instant results. Even as their affection for one another started to blossom into love, Serena started to prosper on court like it was 2002 all over again.

Just weeks after her earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament, Serena was marching through SW19 with renewed vigour and energy. The new wind carried the American to spectacular successes at Wimbledon, two gold medals at the Olympics and the US Open title, before finishing it off in style with a straight sets victory over Maria Sharapova at the WTA Tour Championships.

It was clear that the new bloom had plenty to do with the chemistry between Serena and Patrick, who was helping the American regain her intensity both on and off the court. Even though there hasn’t been any formal confirmation about the relationship, the two were pictured holding hands last September and rumours swirled about a growing romance.

Earlier this year, it was reported in the French press that 40-year-old Clarisse Mouratoglou had filed for divorce. There have been no comments from either side, but it seems Patrick’s relationship with Serena has contributed to the separation. Clarisse is the coach’s second wife and the couple have two children, Charlotte and Juliette.

In working together with Mouratoglou, Serena found peace within and rediscovered the hunger to do well on court. She has been able to channel the positive energy from being content to once again dominate the tour like she had at the height of her powers. But in order to do so, Serena had to work on the court to refine and retune her already impressive repertoire.

In the past few years, Serena had drifted away from tennis due to a series of personal events, bizarre injuries and a growing range of professional interests outside of tennis. While she was still very impressive when on song, she found it difficult to discover the means needed to win on days when she was off colour. She needed a plan B and in Mouratoglou, she found a man who understood a lot about making alternative plans.

In his younger days, Mouratoglou dreamt about being a top notch tennis player, but his businessman father had other ideas and stood in the way of his dreams. “This created a great frustration for me and became a motivation to become a professional tennis coach,” he told BBC Sport. “I wanted to help players achieve what I hadn’t been able to myself. And I also wanted to reach the highest possible level as a coach, the level I’d aspired to when I dreamt of being a top player.”

The resolute Frenchman let his passion to remain on the boil, hoping to one day turn into a highly successful coach. And plan B came off for the 43-year-old man, who embellished his experiences by coaching several high profile players. And in Serena, the determined man found the canvas needed to paint his dreams.

Serena with Patrick Mouratoglou

Marcos Baghdatis, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aravane Rezai, Yanina Wickmayer, Laura Robson and Dimitrov had all honed their games after being put to the coals by Mouratoglou. But in Serena he found his moment of calling – not only were they personally attracted, but their working styles matched to help Serena begin a second innings that is already nearly as impressive as her first.

Mouratoglou recognised that courts around the world were turning slower and the balls were growing heavier, making Serena’s unrelenting aggression less effective. She had to mix it up and he had just the concoction needed for her to dominate again. Mouratoglou helped Serena tighten her defenses by working diligently on her slice from the back of the court.

Even as Mouratoglou worked on teaching Serena the virtue of patience, the American learned to bide her time on the court and indulge in longer rallies. The change gave Serena more control over the transition game and allowed her to relax on court before unleashing the full power of her brute force to nail her opponents.

The fact that Serena has won an incredible 32 of her past 34 matches against top five opponents underlines her dominance of the game. While she has always been a tremendous fighter, what has been most impressive is her ability to turn in victories with frightening consistency. We have more proof of this from the semifinals and finals of the WTA Tour Championship.

Serena recovered from a position of significant vulnerability both against Jelena Jankovic and Li Na to earn her fourth title at the season ending championship. While she had to fight off weary limbs in the semis, Williams was just three games from defeat in the finals. But somehow, she revitalised her game in the right moment to win nine in a row and obliterate her Chinese opponent towards the end of the match.

Not that Serena has lost any of her vaunted ruthlessness. In fact, Serena handed as many as 25 bagels to her opponents this year, including that final set of the year in Turkey. Worryingly for her opponents, both coach and ward believe that the dominatrix can only get better in the days ahead. “I am interested for next year to take my game to a new level, which I think I can do,” she said at Istanbul last week.

Waking up to work will not be a problem, given that she is only one shy of the number of Grand Slams won by Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Further down the road and not nearly as impossible as once thought – is the open era mark of 22, set by Steffi Graf. If she can keep the flame burning till the Olympics in Rio, there is no reason why she won’t emulate or surpass the iconic German star.

“Love is a friendship set to music,” said Joseph Campbell. And if Serena’s exploits this year are anything to go by, then Mouratoglou is striking all the right notes needed to make his student sing her way to greater glory.