Talent is important in tennis, but it is a lesser quality than work ethic: this is the thought of Patrick Mouratoglou, Naomi Osaka’s new coach.
The Frenchman, in one of his recent videos on Instagram, told an anecdote related to his period of work with Holger Rune.
The new coach of the Japanese underlined how talent is not the lowest common denominator for Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
But work ethic, the most important value. Mouratoglou also analyzed how talent damages the ability to fight and winning becomes less important than maintaining your talent.
“The only way to win is through work. Having talent gives people bad habits, because the truth is, again, to be great at something, you have to put in a lot of effort. It hurts your ability to fight and winning becomes less important than maintaining your talent. If you learn to work really hard because you have no other choice, that attitude will carry over into everything you do.
I played this little game with Holger. I told him if I name Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, give me five things they have in common. I don’t think talent is one of the things. I’m not saying they don’t have talent, I’m just saying it’s a lesser quality than all the others,” he explained.
Talking about her new partnership with the French coach, Osaka said at the media day of the China Open in Beijing: “I call him coach now. There’s a lot of interest in my corner right now, but yeah: he’s my coach. I hope for the long term. I like the way he coaches, I think it’s going to be interesting. Wim is one of my favorite people. Nothing personal, nothing crazy happened. I felt like I needed a change. I wanted to win more titles with him. I’m at a stage in my career where I don’t want to have any regrets. I need to learn as much as I can now and Patrick seems like the right person to get the information I want to learn more things.
What do I think about the long and historic partnership between Mouratoglou and Serena Williams? Should I be honest? Because when I am, I get into trouble! The fact that he was Serena’s coach almost made me want to avoid him, because his personality is so great. Then I met him, talked to him and worked on the court with him. He’s absolutely a great coach. I’m grateful that he agreed to this project. I still get nervous when I’m around him and stare at the ground when he looks at me, but I’m feeling more comfortable every day,” she said.