23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou has questioned talented Australian Nick Kyrgios’ ability to win a Grand Slam title in the near future.
Mouratoglou, who has guided Serena to multiple Major crowns, cited Kyrgios’ easy going approach towards the game as the main reason behind his failure to rise up the men’s rankings. According to the decorated French coach, Kyrgios definitely has the talent, but it counts for nothing as the 22-year-old isn’t focused on harnessing that talent.
Making the comments in an interview with Sky Sports, Mouratoglou said: “I think the real big talent is work and ambition.”
“Talent by hitting the ball, this doesn’t help, it helps in certain points but it’s dangerous. When I worked with (Grigor) Dimitrov, I was explaining this to him because he is very talented. I told him: “Listen, never listen to someone who says you have talent, because talent makes you think you can succeed without working, so talent is very dangerous.”
“And actually, most of the talented players struggle because of that,” admitted Mouratoglou.
“When you have talent and ambition and hard-working like Roger (Federer), you are a legend, but this doesn’t happen often. So talking about (Nick) Kyrgios, for the moment, he has talent but a lot of guys are talented.”
“It’s about how much I do give of myself, how much I fight during the matches. That’s the question that I want to answer in order to know if this guy is going to be no. 1 or win Grand Slams. For now, no, he is not going to win Grand Slams.”
“Why? He is not working hard enough, he is not fit and he is not fighting all the time during the matches. Today (Alexander) Zverev has maybe less talent than Kyrgios, but does give 100%.”
