To achieve greatness in sports, every athlete has their own tactics and strategies in place. However, none can be as unique as the ones Serena Williams had. As a result, she went on to become one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen. The American tennis legend was always a step ahead of her opponents and gave them hardly any breathing space. Recently, Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, highlighted Williams’ special strategy to be a cut above the rest.

Mouratoglou, the legendary French coach, had a long-time association with the American star. He started coaching her back in 2012 when Williams had experienced a first-round defeat at a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. Earlier this week, a new episode of the Tennis Insider Club podcast dropped by where Mouratoglou spoke at length about the tactics Williams used before her matches.

He mentioned, “Serena was watching tennis every single night, every single night. She was watching men’s tennis because she was always saying guys can do things that women don’t do on a tennis court. And maybe I can learn this.”

Further, Mouratoglou went on to add, “And then she was coming to me and say, Oh, look, I saw that. Can we do that? I want to learn to do this. You know? I mean, she always had this idea because she was passionate. So that’s the first thing.”

Despite Williams following men’s tennis before her matches, she had once made a controversial statement about it which raised many eyebrows. The moment occurred in 2013 when Williams went on to explain how men’s and women’s tennis were completely different.

When Serena Williams compared men’s tennis to women’s tennis

In a video that went viral on social media, Serena Williams could be heard saying that men’s tennis was way superior than women’s tennis. To prove her point, she revealed, “Men’s tennis & women’s tennis are almost two separate sports. If I were to play Andy Murray I would lose 6-0 6-0 in 5 to 6 minutes. The men are a lot faster, they serve harder, they hit harder.”

This controversial statement attracted the attention of many tennis bigwigs, including Martina Navratilova, who had a strong response to this. She said, “Been angry for years now- the unfairness is off the charts. I will say it again- keep women’s sports female. It is not the place for any (failed) male athletes.”

Despite Serena Williams’ controversial statement, she has been a flag-bearer for women’s tennis, both on and off the court. She has fought against gender inequality and was a strong advocate for equal pay for men and women players. Do you think it is fair to compare the sport based on gender? Let us know your views in the comments below.