Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has revealed that they regularly clashed about her weight during the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s career

Serena Williams clashed with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, over her weight (Image: Getty.)

Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has opened up about their frequent disagreements over her weight during her illustrious career. The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is now retired at 43, began using a weight loss medication and has shed 31 pounds on the GLP-1 drug, recently.

Williams is universally recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, largely due to her exceptional athleticism, which allowed her to dominate the WTA Tour for two decades. However, Mouratoglou, who coached her from 2012 to 2022 and helped her secure 10 Grand Slam titles, recently admitted that they often butted heads over Williams’ weight.

“Oh I remember it very well,” he confessed to The Guardian. “It was after the pregnancy – not right after; I know these things take time. I told her: ‘Listen, this is not a comment on how you look. It’s not my problem.’”.

Serena Williams has recently lost over 31 pounds on weight loss drugs (Image: Getty)

“But tennis is a sport in which you can’t afford to be overweight. First of all, the pressure on your joints and everything is so big that your chances [of injury] become much higher. The second thing is it’s a sport in which you change directions all the time and with a lot of speed. Even one kilo overweight is a lot.”

“When you go full speed in one direction with one kilo extra and then need to stop and come back, the time that you lose is really important. Just look at the best players in the world – [Carlos] Alcaraz, [Jannik] Sinner, [Novak] Djokovic. Think about their movement. The weight was affecting her movement.”

Williams revealed her pregnancy on April 19, 2017, and was approximately eight to nine weeks expecting when she claimed victory at the Australian Open earlier that year. She welcomed her first daughter, Olympia, on September 1.

Mouratoglou revealed that upon her return to competitive tennis, they clashed over her weight.

“We had a few fights about it. I remember she did not like when I said that because she thought I was judging her,” he revealed. “But I kept telling her, I don’t care about your look. It’s not my job. My job is your tennis.”

In retirement, Williams has become a representative for Ro, a telehealth organization that prescribes GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy and Zepbound (known as Mounjaro in the UK).

Having shed 31 pounds, she stated in an advertisement: “I was doing everything right – working out, eating clean, following the plan. But my body wasn’t responding the way it used to. I knew my body was missing something it needed.”

Williams told People: “I feel light physically and light mentally. I just can do more. I’m more active. My joints don’t hurt as much. I just feel like something as simple as just getting down is a lot easier for me. And I do it a lot faster.”