Naomi Osaka's ex-coach Mouratoglou blames himself for her poor results during partnership: "I didn't do a good enough job"

Patrick Mouratoglou recently reflected on his time as Naomi Osaka's coach. Mouratoglou, in an honest admission, took responsibility for Osaka's underwhelming results during their collaboration. In recent months, the Japanese WTA icon has been resurgent under the tutelage of Polish coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.

Mouratoglou, who notably guided the legendary Serena Williams to 10 of her 23 singles Major titles, began working with Osaka in September last year. However, in July this year, the Japanese former No. 1 and four-time Slam champion announced the end of her collaboration with the iconic French coach.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Patrick Mouratoglou spoke up about how Naomi Osaka's disappointing results during the pair's time together led to their split. The 55-year-old coach said:

"The results weren’t good enough, which completely made sense. I think we did a lot of good things but, at least from a coaching standpoint, the one thing that you don’t master can ruin the whole thing. I think she improved so much, I was seeing it on a daily basis. And her mindset was great. But she was not performing well enough during the matches, so that was the one piece that was ruining the whole thing."

Taking full responsibility for the unsuccessful collaboration, Mouratoglou also said that very likely, Osaka felt a lot of pressure having him as her coach due to his past achievements with Serena Williams. According to the Frenchman, his departure from the Japanese's camp took this pressure off of her, allowing her to play "more freely".

"Looking back, I didn’t do a good enough job, otherwise the results would have been there. I also think that having me as a coach was a bit heavy for her, in regards to what I did with Serena for many years. She mentioned it a few times actually, even publicly – and I didn’t find a way to take that pressure away. I think maybe that’s why she wasn’t performing," he added.

"As soon as I was not in the loop, she felt probably lighter. By not having that pressure, she could express her tennis more freely. But there are no hard feelings. She’s a great competitor," Mouratoglou concluded.

Naomi Osaka made top 20 comeback after parting ways with Patrick Mouratoglou; Japanese enjoyed deep runs in Canada and US Open

Naomi Osaka at the 2025 US Open (Source: Getty)

At this year's National Bank Open in Montreal, the unseeded Naomi Osaka stormed her way into the final after dispatching the likes Liudmila Samsonova, Jelena Ostapenko, Elina Svitolina and Clara Tauson, all of who were seeded at the WTA 1000 event.

In the final, she locked horns with home favorite, teenager Victoria Mboko. Here, Osaka put herself in pole position for the victory by taking the first set 6-2. Remarkably though, Mboko bounced back to take the next two sets, denying the Japanese what would have been her third WTA 1000 title.

Naomi Osaka maintained her momentum at the US Open as well, where, as the No. 23 seed, she took out Daria Kasatkina, Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova to reach the semifinals. However, in the last four, the Japanese's hopes for a third US Open title were dashed by eventual runner-up, Amanda Anisimova. Osaka currently finds herself in 14th place in the WTA Tour's singles rankings.