Patrick Mouratoglou’s defended his in-match coaching of Serena Williams that started last year’s U.S. Open final down the road to debacle. Everybody does it, he argued, and said he would do it again if need be.
“Do I regret? Not at all. For me, I didn’t do anything bad. I just did what all the coaches do,” Mouratoglou said.
“Do I regret? No, I felt like she was lost at that moment and I tried to help her doing something that everybody does. I’d do the same tomorrow, really — 100 percent. And if I’m penalized again, I think it’s unfair the same way. If I’m penalized, then everyone should be penalized every day. And nobody is. Nobody.”
Chair umpire Carlos Ramos hit Williams with a verbal code violation after Mouratoglou gave her a hand signal to move up closer to net. Williams ripped Ramos, yelling that she wasn’t a cheater and had never taken coaching. She lost to Naomi Osaka and the fans’ continued booing turned what should’ve been Osaka’s breakthrough moment into an ugly scene.
“When the fire light is red, you’re supposed to stop. If nobody stops — the police is here and they don’t say anything — the use becomes the rule,” Mouratoglou said. “That’s exactly the story of coaching. On paper it’s not authorized. Everybody coaches. Let’s not say everybody because it’s never everybody, but say 90 percent. It’s probably more. … You see that every day on every court. Everybody knows it.”