PARIS, May 29 -- Successful as he is, world No. 1 Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted here Sunday that he's not an expert for Chinese tennis but advised the country to open up for future development in the sport.
"China is a very big country and I'm not expert for Chinese tennis," said the well-known French coach with a smile.
"But with more and more Chinese players coming to play, I understand there's very big plan to build tennis players, and results in tennis. This is clear and this is the first step."
Mouratoglou took over Serena four years ago when the top American woman player suffered at Roland Garros her only first-round exit from a major, and has helped her achieve more success.
Now after eight Grand Slam since 2012 and more than three years at world No. 1 under Mouratoglou's charge, Serena seems more dominant on court and is en route to her 22nd major title at the ongoing French Open.
"There's no such thing as luck," commented Mouratoglou. "All the players I know, and I know quite a few, everybody is where he deserves to be."
When asked what it takes for China to repeat the peak performance of retired French and Australian Open champion Li Na, Mouratoglou suggested Chinese tennis learn from countries with tennis traditions like France.
"We play tennis for, I don't know, hundreds of years maybe, so we have a big culture of tennis," said the 46-year-old. "That's the same if I want to play table tennis, l'd go to China.
"In tennis, I think more the opposite to it. We have longer experience with tennis, so there're a lot of things that your players will learn faster if they come.
"And I think they should come with their coach and we can teach the coach too, and the coach can learn and teach other coaches and help the country develops in one particular sport."
Mouratoglou's academy MTA, which's moving from Paris suburb to Nice in Cote d'Azur, boasts the men's junior world No. 1 and women's No. 2 after bringing them in for six months.
There's also something about the Chinese tennis that Mouratoglou does not understand.
"I know some European coaches coming to China to work with provincial teams," he said. "Since the teams want to be the best provinces, the players are asked to play a lot of tournaments than go abroad, not much as they should.
"I think if the goal is to have the next Li Na and the same on the men's side, the system has to be sort of making the players, not to make the province," said Mouratoglou.
And as for individuals, especially starters trying to turn pros, his advices are: "First, you have to have the right people around you, people you trust and people who deserve the trust and they prepare to do anything that need to be done.
"Once you have the right people, there's the only way -- to work and give 100% on and off the courts every single day," he said.
by Sportswriters Zhang Han, Zhang Miao
