"Serena lost because she wasn't ready" - says coach Mouratoglou about recent results

Serena has not enjoyed a successful return to tennis having played three matches on clay losing two of them.

For Serena Williams, clay season has not started well with the tennis legend taking part at the Rome Masters and the Emilia-Romagna Open. A loss to Podoroska in the Rome first round prompted Serena to take a wild card into the Emilia-Romagna Open.

There she won the first round match against a qualifier before losing to Siniakova in straight sets. Her coach Patrick Mouratoglou offered insight into the bad results:

"I think Serena lost because she wasn't ready. I don't know, but maybe it wasn't a good idea to go and play in Parma because her match in Rome showed many things that still needed to be worked on to compete at the highest level."

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Mouratoglou further continued:

"I think it's always interesting to play matches because it gives you a clear vision of where you are, so that was good in that way because we know what she still needs to accomplish to be ready for Roland Garros. I'm not worried in general because if she does the job, she will be ready."

For Mouratoglou it's all about Serena preparing herself because the key moments will be in the latter stages of events where her play in recent years has been subpar. The coach explained:

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"We'll see how she is in the next couple of tournaments. When she gets to the latter stages, the semi-finals and the final, how does she handle the situation, and can she play her best tennis? The last year she hasn't been able to play her best in the latter stages."