Whether they are talking in English or French, Serena Williams and her coach Patrick Mouratoglou are open and honest with each other in their discussions.
The only barrier to conversation is when they are talking in Mouratoglou's native tongue and Williams can't think of the French word she wants (which is why he prefers to have their chats in English as then he knows he has been understood).
As Mouratoglou told wimbledon.com, it's the quality of the communication that often determines whether a player-coach relationship is successful or not. So it was interesting to hear that, while the pair have been working together for four years, it's only relatively recently that they started to talk about Williams' pursuit of Steffi Graf's modern era record of 22 Grand Slam titles.
Victory on the All England Club grass would put Williams, who hasn't won a major since last summer's Wimbledon, level with the German. According to Mouratoglou, Williams will become the undisputed greatest female player in history if she were to equal and then pass Graf's tally. Still, this hasn't been a topic of conversation for very long.
"Although we started working together in 2012, we didn't start talking about Steffi's record until much later," said Mouratoglou, whose time with Williams began when the American had 13 Grand Slam titles, and has produced a further eight.
When you trust your coach you do everything at 100 per cent
"It's like when you're going climbing and you stand at the bottom of the mountain and look at the top, you're going to be thinking, ‘Wow, I’m never going to reach that peak, that’s almost unattainable.’ So it’s always better just to look a little bit above where you are now, and then you think it’s something you can do. You achieve that, you look up again, and then you go step by step. That’s the best way to do things," Mouratoglou added.
"So when Serena reached 17 slams, that's when we started to talk about equalling Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on 18 majors. Getting to 18 wasn't easy as she was so close to having the same number of Grand Slams as those two legends. First, Serena had to equal those legends, and then she had to move above them, and only then could we look higher."
It was after an opening round defeat at the 2012 French Open that Williams turned to Mouratoglou. "Serena came to me and the project was to win one more Grand Slam and to come back to No.1," he recalled. Williams would win their first slam together at that summer's Wimbledon Championships.
"I would say there are a number of factors behind the success that Serena and I have had. The quality of the relationship, and the quality of the communication, is a key point. I’ll always say that for a player to have success, he or she must have a great relationship with his or her coach. That’s important because as a player, when you trust your coach, you do everything at 100 per cent as you really believe in it. When you have that sort of relationship, the coach has more impact. Together, Serena and I have built a project."
Seven of Graf's 22 majors came at Wimbledon. So Williams, who already has six titles at the All England Club, could also equal Graf for Wimbledon prizes. Still, Mouratoglou doesn't consider Williams to play "a grass game".
“I don’t think her game is a grass game – she had has lots of success at the other Grand Slams since we started working together – but definitely her serve is a big weapon at Wimbledon," he noted.
"The first Grand Slam we won together, the 2012 Wimbledon title, she served at a higher level than I think anyone in the history of the sport. She served so many aces. That’s crazy. Her slice serve is huge, that’s a big asset on grass, as well as her serve in general and the quality of her return. She’s also an aggressive player with powerful ground strokes and that makes her very dangerous."
Between them, the Williams sisters have 11 Wimbledon titles, with five belonging to Venus. “To have two sisters dominating the game as they did, that’s not going to happen again very soon," Mouratoglou said. "Venus has been more efficient at Wimbledon than at any other tournament. They have the same type of game, the two of them. Venus was moving better when she was at her best. That was a big asset as it’s not easy to move well on grass, and she moved incredibly well on grass. They both have huge serves and are super-aggressive on the returns."
