Serena Williams‘ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, is not a big fan of Patrick Mouratoglou! Take for example, when the rumors broke about Naomi Osaka hiring Mouratoglou as her new coach after her split with Wim Fissette, Stubbs shared a cryptic reaction on social media. After that, she also suggested that Osaka should be “wary” of aligning herself with Patrick Mouratoglou since he had “f-cked up” Simona Halep’s career. Now, Stubbs was yet again spotted attaching the Frenchman, while highlighting what really went wrong for Halep in her doping saga.

For those who are unaware, Halep was suspended from the WTA Tour in October 2022 for 4 years after testing positive for a banned substance (Roxadustat). However, in February 2024, her ban was reduced to 9 months, already served, and she returned to the tour at the 2024 Miami Open. This doping controversy caused a serious impact on her career, such that her Top 10 rankings in 2022 have now come down to 879! What might have really led to this type of situation, explained Stubbs.

During the episode of ‘The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast’ (December 3), the 53-year-old Aussie said, “When she (Simona Halep) started with Patrick, it seemed like she wasn’t as diligent with her own independence. It was like she gave the independence of herself and her choices to Patrick…Seems to me she gave way too much power, and that’s where she got f-cked when it came to working with Patrick and his team is that she sort of gave over her independence of what am I taking, what am I doing, what am I training, to him.”

Even when Naomi Osaka confirmed her decision to offer Patrick Mouratoglou the new role in her team, Stubbs was like Osaka’s decision might’ve been motivated by Mouratoglou’s role in “moulding” Williams. She further argued that any capable coach could’ve helped the 23-time Grand Slam champion, since she already possessed all the necessary skills to succeed. She further questioned why players “bowed down” to Mouratoglou’s expertise when he hadn’t accomplished anything extraordinary outside of his partnership with Williams. 

She was even seen issuing a stern warning to Naomi Osaka amidst her tie-up with the Frenchman by claiming, “We’ll see how long it lasts.” Earlier this year, she also revealed that she’s not a fan of Holger Rune’s reunion with the Frenchman.

She said, “I just think that he could find somebody that could be a better fit for him.” Interestingly, a few months later, we saw Rune parting ways with Mouratoglou! So, this Frenchman has been the hot topic of discussion for quite some time in the tennis world now. But what was his reaction to Simona Halep’s ban?

Rennae Stubbs’ reaction to seeing Patrick Mouratoglou accept his responsibility for Simona Halep’s doping ban

Simona Halep started working with Patrick Mouratoglou in May 2022. Her journey with Mouratoglou didn’t last long, but still, it made a heavy impact on her career! After this doping incident came out, we saw Patrick Mouratoglou finally breaking his silence on this topic by saying, “I support you 100% in this fight, Simona. All the way through.” Then, when there were a lot of murmurs in the tennis world surrounding this whole topic, we saw him coming up with a social media post.

In that post, he admitted, “This collagen was contaminated, there was no way of knowing. But I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team. So basically I’m the one who brought this collagen to her.” After seeing this, Simona Halep said, “I’m sure it wasn’t done intentionally and I’m grateful he admits the mistake was his and his team’s. Yes, they are the ones who gave me this food supplement. And for this error – their error – I am the only one to pay the high price: twenty-five years of career destroyed!” Later on, Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs shared a few lines on Mouratoglou’s admission.

Stubbs speculated that Mouratoglou would’ve made these assertions in an attempt to influence the CAS in order to have a less severe verdict for Simona Halep. “I have no insight into why he decided to come out now but I agree with you, it is too little too late. And unless he’s saying it now with the CAS, the arbitration whatever you call it, coming out where they have to go in front of them and hopefully they can get a little bit more of a lenient sentence, and he’s trying to put it out now for that particular court battle,” said the Aussie.

She was clearly never too pleased with the way Mouratoglou handled Simona Halep‘s situation. Do you agree?