Roger Federer's elegance is "unmatched" but he's not the GOAT, suggests Serena Williams' ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou

Serena Williams' former coach Patrick Mouratoglou recently suggested that Roger Federer cannot be called the greatest player of all time despite his "unmatched" elegance.

Federer won 20 Major titles during a career than spanned more than two decades. He was also renowned for his effortless style of play, through which he was able to appeal to many tennis fans.

Although the Swiss maestro transcended the sport through his class both on and off the court, his Grand Slam tally was eventually overtaken by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

In that context, Serena Williams' ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou commented about the GOAT race between Djokovic, Nadal and Federer on his X handle on Thursday (January 4). The Frenchman said the Swiss would always be idolized for his elegance, but added that such subjective factors don't have any bearing on the GOAT debate.

"No doubt that Roger’s elegance and inspired tennis is unmatched as much as there is no discussion about who is the Goat. In that matter, sports achievements is the only metric," Mouratoglou said on X (formerly Twitter).

"Most of his career, Novak Djokovic has been at the top even though he played in the same era as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal" - Patrick Mouratoglou

Novak Djokovic poses with the 2023 Australian Open trophy

Patrick Mouratoglou considers Novak Djokovic to be the GOAT, owing to the latter having won the most big tournaments in tennis history. The 53-year-old showered rich praise on Djokovic a month ago, claiming that he had never seen such a dominant player in their late 30s.

He also expressed his admiration towards the 24-time Major winner for ending Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer's duopoly in the last decade.

“I’ve never seen in the history of tennis someone who is on top of their game at 36, as much as they were at 26, 28. It’s a whole career of being at the top,” the Frenchman told Tennis Majors last December. "He had one or two difficult years, but most of his career he’s been at the top of his game, even though he played in the same era as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which says even more about how an incredible, dominant player he is."

Mouratoglou added that in his opinion, the GOAT debate was "completely dead" after Djokovic's triumphs at three of the four Majors last year.

“I think the famous debate about who is the GOAT, I guess, is completely dead now after this incredible year, three more Grand Slams, plus one final. He has the record almost everywhere of all – number of Masters 1000s, number of weeks No 1, number of Grand Slams – and he’s still playing, he’s still at the top,” he said.