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

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.