"I've always respected Simona as a player" - says Patrick Mouratoglou

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou says he has always had a great level of respect for Simona Halep as he still remembers well all the tough battles the Romanian has had against Serena Williams.

A couple of days ago a piece of bombshell news dropped in the tennis world and the news was that Mouratoglou became the full-time coach of Simona Halep. It created a shockwave of follow-up news with many wondering what that meant for Serena Williams as he still is her coach. Reports later came out that Mouratoglou will still work with Williams while also getting the blessing to help Halep.

Speaking about the Romanian after the news came out, he said:

I’ve always respected Simona as a player, when she was playing against Serena, because I think she’s an incredible competitor. She quite often gave very difficult matches to Serena. I mean, Serena beat her most of the time, except one very important match, which was the final of Wimbledon in 2019, where she played incredible tennis. But I respected her game and her intensity."

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He further said:

"And I knew every time Serena was playing her, that when Serena would drop her concentration a little bit, that’s when Simona would be on top of her straight away. So I respected the player a lot. I didn’t know her. I barely spoke to her ever. I felt she was a very emotional person, which I say in a positive way. I think I think it’s a great thing to have to have emotions and to accept our emotions because we are humans. And I felt she was smart and I’ve had the confirmation; she is smart, and quite deep in her thoughts. And so it’s always very interesting to discuss with her, I really take a lot of pleasure talking to her."