"It took me 10 years to rebuild myself": Patrick Mouratoglou reveals his 'biggest achievement'

Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has opened up about a difficult phase of his life. The 54-year-old is now regarded as one of the most respected tennis coaches in the world and has worked with a lot renowned players including the likes of the former world number one America’s Serena Williams, another former world number Romania’s Simona Halep, Denmark’s Holger Rune and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Mouratoglou, who is currently working with another former world number one, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, has opened up about a difficult phase of his life during his teenage years. He stated that it took him about 10 years to come out of that phase and according, that remains the biggest achievement of his life.

“I always say transforming the 16-year-old me into the 26-year-old is my biggest achievement because at 16, I had no chance to achieve anything in my life,” said Mouratoglou while talking to Tennis365. “My life was going to become a disaster and it took me 10 years to rebuild myself into someone who was prepared for life. When you are ready for life, when you are confident and you have good self-esteem, you can then dare to be ambitious. Then it gives you a lot of energy because you have dreams that you want to achieve and when you have confidence and self-belief, you start to think you can achieve them. It took me 10 years to get to that point from the age of 16 and this is the most important achievement in my life.

He continued by saying: “A lot of people, maybe not to my extent as I was extremely bad, are in difficult situations when they are teenagers and even as adults. Why you are too shy and have no self-belief, you can’t do anything. Now I have spent the rest of my life trying to help others find their self-confidence in tennis. To believe more in themselves and to reach out to achieve their dreams.”