Serena Williams has not won a Grand Slam in four years and if she does not bounce back quickly, things might start to get pear-shaped for the tennis legend.
Serena made it to the semi-final in the WTA 500 tournament in Melbourne and at the Australian Open in early 2021 before losing to Naomi Osaka in the Grand Slam. Williams suffered a defeat against Nadia Podoroska in Rome, but instead of taking time off, decided to participate in the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma.
The decision did not pan out quite well for Serena as after getting the better of Lisa Pigato in two sets, she suffered a defeat against Czech Katerina Siniakova in straight sets.
Her former coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who founded the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in 1996, weighed in on the matter.
Having coached Marcos Baghdatis to the final of the 2006 Australian Open, apart from teaching the likes of Julia Vakulenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, AravaneRezaï, YaninaWickmayer, JérémyChardy, GrigorDimitrov and Laura Robson the tricks of the trade, the French tennis coach and sports commentator Patrick Mouratoglou is a respected figure in the game.
"Against Siniakova she lost because she was not ready. I don't know, maybe it wasn't a good idea to come to Parma after the defeat in Rome, you made me understand that there is still a lot to work on to compete at the highest level. Playing matches is always interesting because it gives you a clear position of where you are, so now we know what needs to be improved in view of Roland Garros. If she does her job well, then she will be ready," Mouratoglou said.
The last time Williams laid her hands on a Grand Slam trophy was in January 2017, when she beat sister Venus Williams in straight sets at the Australian Open - her seventh silverware in Melbourne.
However, things have been going downhill since then. She managed to win the title in Auckland next season, but that's just about it. She was short of the mark at the 2019 Toronto Rogers Cup final, wherein she retired against Canadian youngster Bianca Andreescu after only a few games.
Serena has stood pretty at the first position of the WTA ranking for a total of 319 weeks, only behind Steffi Graf 377 and Martina Navratilova 332, but her powers certainly seem to be waning.
