Naomi Osaka’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has given a passionate defense of Novak Djokovic’s chances of defeating Jannik Sinner in the French Open semifinal. The French coaching guru was adamant that Djokovic has the mental strength to overcome the World No. 1 and reach his eighth Paris final.
Mouratoglou is a highly respected coach, commentator and pundit. He is the owner of the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Southern France. Mouratoglou is most celebrated as Serena Williams’s coach from 2012 to 2022, but he also worked with Grigor Dimitrov and Holger Rune, among many others.
Mouratoglou was taking questions on his Instagram account, in the build-up to the much-anticipated match between Sinner and Djokovic in the Roland Garros semifinal. Both players have looked imperious en route to the last four, with only Djokovic dropping one set all tournament.
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Mouratoglou began by outlining the great Serb's unquestionable credentials and pointed out Djokovic's most important asset - his mental strength:
"It's Novak. It's not anyone. It's Novak. Can Novak beat him? Yes. Why? Because Novak is a beast, mentally. I've never seen anyone in the men's game that is such an incredible player in terms of mental abilities. And that he became the GOAT in terms of achievements at a time when he was playing with the two other GOATS."
Mouratoglou went on to argue that despite his age and the astonishing qualities of his opponent, Jannik Sinner, Djokovic still has the tools to prevail even at age 38:
"Yeah, he can beat Sinner, because we can have a transformed Novak in that match that will play a level that we did not expect. Is he far from his best level? No, but he's getting close."
Finally, Mouratoglou pointed to Djokovic's quarterfinal performance against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev as evidence that the amazing Serb is still able to raise his game to the highest level:
"You know, the match against Zverev was reassuring in terms of the ones who would doubt him. He beats a top-three player who was a finalist last year at Roland Garros, in the quarterfinals, in five sets. On clay, that is not his best surface. So can he even rise to another level to beat Sinner in the semifinal? Yeah, he can."
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic currently share a 4-4 head-to-head record. However, the Italian has won three of their last four matches. Djokovic won their only clay-court encounter when he defeated Sinner 6-4, 6-2 in Monte Carlo but that was back in 2021.
Novak Djokovic is convinced he can raise his game to beat Jannik Sinner in the French Open semifinal
Patrick Mouratoglou makes some interesting points, and there is no doubt that Novak Djokovic will go into the match with Jannik Sinner believing he can win. The amazing Serb will take confidence from the fact that he has only lost one set in the tournament so far. Djokovic was interviewed by The Guardian this week and suggested that being an underdog would bring out his best tennis:
"These kind of matchups and challenges in a way extract the best out of me. Playing best-of-five, late stages of a grand slam against No 1 in the world, you can’t get more motivated than that for me at this age."
Jannik Sinner will be extremely confident, too. The Italian has looked very solid all tournament, and is yet to lose a set. His performance against Alexander Bublik, where he won 6-1, 7-5, 6-0, was particularly impressive and suggested that, despite Mouratoglou's view, Djokovic will have an enormously difficult task to displace him.
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