The renowned tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou spoke, six years later, about the scandal in which the American Serena Williams was involved.
The technician admits that the day of the women’s final at the US Open was a terrible one, not only because Williams was defeated by Japan’s Naomi Osaka in straight sets.
Mouratoglou recalled the scandal involving Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open final
On September 8, 2018, Japan’s Naomi Osaka won her first Grand Slam after defeating American Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the US Open final. However, the match was marked by an incident consumed in the second set.
At the end of a point, Mouratoglou, who was Serena’s coach at the time, gave the American a thumbs-up sign to show her approval of the way she played. However, the chair referee, Carlos Ramos, interpreted the gesture as a kind of “coaching”, which is prohibited by the regulations.
As a result, he warned the player, who had several discussions with the referee, in a loud tone, during that set. In the end, Ramos gave him a lost point for verbal abuse.
Tournament officials entered the field, and Serena explained to them, with tears in her eyes, that the punishment was unfair. Osaka also suffered, being whistled, until the end of the game, at almost every point won and she even burst into tears a few times.
Mouratoglou admits it was a terrible day
Mouratoglou detailed how things went on the Aussie player’s “Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios” podcast. He admitted that Osaka had a bittersweet day because of what happened.
“It was a terrible day for us because of all the drama surrounding the US Open final. It was a bad day and a bittersweet one for Naomi, but there was drama. I think it was not an ideal first Grand Slam for Naomi. For us, it was very painful and we had a lot of bad press,” Mouratoglou said, according to Sports Keeda.
Patrick Mouratoglou also pointed out the positive things from that scandal
The famous technician says that the good part of all that scandal was that afterwards the world looked more carefully at what was happening in tennis. In addition, the incident also helped to change the rules regarding coaching.
“But I think it was a good thing for two reasons. First of all, the drama was so big because it was a Grand Slam final with Serena on court. All the publications around the world, even the non-sports ones, were talking about the incident. So for tennis it was a great day. We need drama to draw more attention to the game.
Second, I think it contributed to the discussions to change the rule. I think the rule needed to be changed. Not all players used coaching but most of them used it many times in every match,” he added.
The rules regarding coaching during matches have changed and players can now have limited interactions with their coaches during points.