US Open restrictions ‘may put Serena off’

Serena Williams may not compete at the US Open under tough restrictions being proposed for the event, her coach Patrick Mouratoglou has said.

“I think Serena will want to play 100 percent, but I don’t know how she can go there with only one person,” Mouratoglou, told Ben Rothenberg on the No Challenges Remaining podcast.

“I don’t imagine her three weeks without her daughter, so maybe her daughter will coach her? I mean, she can only do better than me in Grand Slam finals.”

Mouratoglou’s comments referred to the USTA proposals that would limit each player to bringing just one person with them to event.

Mouratoglou said it was a ‘big challenge’ for the games top players.

“I think it’s one of the biggest challenges they all have to go through because for a tennis player not to know when you’re going to play, it’s the worst thing on the planet,” he said.

“Not to know when you’re going to play a match again is the most challenging thing for a tennis player, who are used to having short-term goals all their life.”

World No.1 Novak Djokovic has called the USTA limitations “extreme”.

“The rules they told us we would have to respect to be there, to play at all, they are extreme,” Djokovic told Serbia’s Prva TV last week.

“We would not have access to Manhattan, we would have to sleep in hotels at the airport, to be tested twice or three times per week.

“They want the tournament to go ahead at any cost for economic reasons, which I understand. But the question is, how many players are willing to accept those terms.”

Mouratoglou said Williams had used the pandemic lockdown to rest. “She needed to rest anyway,” he said.

“And after that, she started to do some fitness to get back into shape, and maybe three weeks ago she started to play tennis again.

“She knows what she needs to do, she doesn’t need me. She’s filming her tennis sessions and she’s sending me the videos … but we’re relaxed, no rush.”