“RESHAPE YOURSELF AND COMEBACK TO TENNIS” Serena Williams’ Coach Admits They Had ‘a Few Fights’ About Her Obesity During Her Career: ‘The Results Would Have Been Better’ “I remember she did not like when I said that because she thought I was judging her,”

Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted he and the tennis star clashed over conversations about her weight during her career.

In an interview with The Guardian published on Sept. 11, Mouratoglou was asked about Williams’ recent comments about using and promoting a GLP-1 weight loss drug. The tennis coach said he remembers having disagreements with Williams over her weight after she gave birth to her daughter Olympia, 8, in which he said she needed to slim down to improve her tennis.

“We had a few fights about it,” Mouratoglou said.

“I remember she did not like when I said that because she thought I was judging her,” he continued. “But I kept telling her, I don’t care about your look. It’s not my job. My job is your tennis. If you want to come back to the top and make history, then we have to be very efficient on every level – including this one, which for me was the key element.”

Mouratoglou said after her pregnancy — noting that it wasn’t “right after” because he knows “these things take time” — he told Williams, “Listen, this is not a comment on how you look. It’s not my problem.”

Mouratoglou noted that Williams was “older” and said her body “is not going to bounce back the same as before, and the risk of injury is even bigger.”

The coach said he explained to her that “tennis is a sport in which you can’t afford to be overweight,” and cited pressure on joints and running speed as reasons.

“Even one kilo overweight is a lot,” Mouratoglou said. “When you go full speed in one direction with one kilo extra and then need to stop and come back, the time that you lose is really important. Just look at the best players in the world — Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic. Think about their movement. The weight was affecting her movement.”

Mouratoglou added that he’s “not the type of guy who’s looking back and having regrets,” but said he thinks “the results would have been better” for Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champ, “if she would have been in this position physically.”

Speaking about his relationship with Williams, Mouratoglou said he and the tennis star had “big trust on both sides — like, really, full trust,” and he knew “perfectly how to push her, motivate her, provoke her to be more competitive.”

On Aug. 21, the mother of two revealed to PEOPLE that she had lost 31 lbs. since using a weight loss medication to aid in her health journey. She said it helped her have “a lot of energy” and she was feeling “pretty good about it,” especially given her previous struggle with her postpartum body.

“I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained,” she said. “It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at.”