Australian Open: How Serena Williams has become the GOAT

There’s reality. And then there’s “Serena Reality”.

Serena Williams was in a relaxed mood when she spoke to the media at Melbourne Park on Sunday. Picture: AAP

There’s reality. And then there’s “Serena Reality”.

Such is the power of the 23-time grand slam winner, whose summer included training with former world heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson and French house DJ Bob Sinclar in the south of France, karaoke sessions, and beachside cocktails with AFL’s two-time premiership and Norm Smith medal-winning Tiger Dustin Martin. Oh, and a congratulatory tweet from US President Donald Trump.

It’s a veritable who’s who — but such is this reality in the world of a player who is arguably the greatest of all time.

“She trusts me, I trust her,” Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou said in a documentary released by Eurosport this week.

“That’s why our collaboration has been successful. She has such a huge, strong personality. She knows exactly what she wants.

“And I like to say that there is reality and then there is Serena reality. Serena is able to change the reality to fit what she wants to achieve to herself.”

After the offbeat run-up to the Australian summer, this week turns to serious matters — winning a record 24th grand slam title. It is the foundation set by a new approach to the pre-season, implemented by Mouratoglou, that he believes bred not only a new level of fitness, but also of inspiration.

Williams smashed boxing bags with Tyson, who proclaimed he “don’t want to get in the ring” with the American champion because she “has some power”, and also reportedly smashed out some Destiny’s Child on the microphone in one of her favourite pastimes, karaoke, at the training camp that included emerging star Coco Gauff.

“She has a lot of sides to her,” 18-time grand slam winner and now television commentator Chris Evert said.

“She’s a well-rounded person. You can’t stick her in a box. She’s also creative. She’s got a fashion line. She’s a mom, she’s a wife. She’s a leader in many causes. She’s a great tennis player. You know, I think the world is her oyster at this point, and she’s pretty good at everything she tries to do.”

Melbourne-based tennis coach Mark Hlawaty knows the many sides to the 38-year-old star better than most, having served as Williams’ hitting partner in Australia for almost a decade.

She claimed five Australian Opens during that time, all the while insisting that Hlawaty and her fellow team members sit in the same seat in the player box and stick to the same routine.

Hlawaty — who had been working with the likes of Monica Seles and Martina Hingis — caught the attention of Team Williams at the 2003 Hopman Cup, prompting an exclusive arrangement that proved fruitful at the year’s first grand slam.

His ability to mimic the style of Williams’ upcoming opponent — and challenge her — were assets the power hitter liked, and goes to show what Hlawaty describes as an “extraordinary” commitment to achieving success.

“To do something extraordinary, you’ve got to be extraordinary,” Hlawaty said.

“And you’ve got to be able to run your life in an extraordinary manner and do those things — sometimes the simple things — extraordinarily well. And that’s what she’s been able to do.

“To win in Auckland and span it over four decades, that’s unbelievable. I think she’s really appreciating the wins now because of the place that she’s in in her career — it’s so different to the middle and the beginning.

“Is it something that can be matched in years to come, who knows? But to be able to have that kind of longevity speaks volumes of the person and the team that she’s got around her and that intrinsic drive to be the best and to create history.”

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But despite there being nothing “normal” about what Williams has achieved, he said the woman he worked so closely with for the best part of 10 summers remains just that: “Behind closed doors, she’s been great to me and my fiancee. She’s been open and caring and a normal human. Now as a mum.

“Last year I bumped into her in the gym and I asked her about being a mum and it was just like every other friend of ours that has gone through the same thing. It’s very much as normal a person that you can get, thrust into this environment which is probably a bit of a circus in itself. She’s been caring, thoughtful and really open.”

Mouratoglou, who has worked with Williams since 2012, agrees with Evert that Serena is “more than tennis”. But he concedes there have been countless moments of true honesty between the pair. It began, he recalled, in one of their first meetings.

He thought her to be an underachiever — and didn’t hesitate to tell her — gloves off.

“I think from the start she liked what I said,” Mouratoglou said.

“When we sat down at the start of our collaboration and she said ‘OK, what do you see in my game, what do you see for the future’, I said ‘you have 13 grand slams, it’s great, but I think you’re an underachiever, because I think you should have won many more’.”

Since that day she has added another 10 grand slams to her bulging trophy cabinet, and remains firmly in the hunt for more.

Her needs have varied in that time — and still do.

“You have to enter into the mind of your player,” Mouratoglou said of his philosophy.

“I have one method per player, and it’s different for everyone.

“When I work with Serena, I work completely differently, because everybody’s different. Some moments she needs to be pushed, some moments she needs encouragement. Some moments she needs to be put down.”

Australia’s Sam Stosur, three years Williams’ junior at 35, is a card-carrying member of an exclusive group on the WTA Tour — players who have defeated the champion in a grand slam final.

There’s not many in the crew — only seven other than the Queenslander, who took down Williams in her own backyard at the 2011 US Open.

“The night before, once I knew I was in the final, I just had it in my head that I was winning that next day. I knew what I wanted to do,” Stosur said.

“She’s arguably the best female player of all time. She’s got a presence out there. She’s an incredible athlete, and Venus as well.

“Her and Venus have grown the sport like no tomorrow over their longevity and everything that they’ve been able to achieve.

“It’s pretty cool to have played in the same era as them and I wish in a couple of those Wimbledon doubles finals I wasn’t playing against them because it would have been nice to get one of those.”

If Williams does lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup in 12 days’ time, a campaign which begins on Monday against Russian Anastasia Potapova, Williams will equal the record set by Australian Margaret Court, though Stosur does not believe the American’s legacy will be defined by the number: “We all know what she’s done and her career is not going to be any less if she doesn’t get it.”

HERALD SUN