Serena Williams factor made Naomi Osaka 'want to avoid' working with Patrick Mouratoglou before recent link-up

Naomi Osaka has admitted that the Serena Williams factor was initially something to put her off working with new coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

Osaka sealed her opening win against Lucia Bronzetti under the watchful eye of her new coach who has also previously worked with Simona Halep and most recently Holger Rune. There was also the question of whether his persona would be too big for her.

She recently ditched coach Wim Fissette for a fresh impetus and Mouratoglou was seen in her camp in the weeks that followed at UCLA. For Osaka though who has had a stop start 2024 in terms of form, it is about living with no regrets.

While it has looked good so far, Osaka admitted that it is about if she fails trusting the process and going for it rather than living with a what if. Mouratoglou could provide the tonic or it could be back to square one but in her mind at least she's tried.

"I think the fact that he was Serena's coach for me made me want to avoid him just because his persona is so big. Like, this isn't rude because I found out it's not true, but I didn't know if he was a good coach or he coached Serena," said Osaka s per WTA.

"Then I met him, talked to him, worked with him on the court. He absolutely is a really good coach. I'm really glad that he's taking this project on, as well."

"I think I'm at a stage in my life that I don't want to have regrets. I'd rather pull the trigger on something and I don't want to say 'fail' but I feel like I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career. Patrick seemed like the guy with, I guess, the information that I wanted to learn from."