The search for the next champion

There will only ever be one Serena Williams.

But for Patrick Mouratoglou, her long-time coach, the search for the next big tennis champion has already begun.

The 48-year-old Frenchman, who has guided Williams to 10 of her Open era record 23 Grand Sam singles titles, has formed a team consisting of three of the most promising talents from his Mouratoglou Tennis Academy.

They include 14-year-old American Cori “Coco” Gauff, who won the Roland-Garros girls’ title last month, 18-year-old Alexei Popyrin of Russia, the 2017 Roland-Garros boys’ champion, and 19-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, the first Greek to be ranked inside the top 100, who reached the third round of The Championships for the first time this week.

Their mission: to win a Grand Slam title.

“I don’t think there will be another Serena, but we develop kids at the academy and when they develop I want to push them to their limits, whatever they are,” Mouratoglou, the founder and president of the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, based on the French Riviera, told wimbledon.com.

“The idea about the team is this: to select the few that did really, really well,” said Mouratoglou, who started working with Williams in 2012.

“Tsitsipas, Popyrin and Gauff, they are players that have achieved, either by being Grand Slam winners in juniors or having been No.1 at some point, or a high ATP ranking at a young age,” said Mouratoglou, who has also coached 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis and reigning ATP World Tour finals champion Grigor Dimitrov.

Mouratoglou called Gauff “an incredible fighter with big weapons,” before adding: “I’d be surprised if she is not top 100 in three years.”

The Frenchman said the No.35-ranked Tsitispas, who reached his first ATP World Tour final earlier in the year in Barcelona, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, is “an incredible fighter” who always gives it his all.

“When we see that potential and those achievements, we think ‘OK, they deserve more now’,” he said. “Let’s put in place something that can give something more that they need.”

“Team Mouratoglou,” which will also be known as “Team M” and already has its own logo, will have a fitness coach, a physiotherapist and tennis coaches. The players will be mentored by Mouratoglou himself, who supervises the programme.

Although tennis is a highly individual sport, Mouratoglou said being in a competitive team environment will benefit his players.

“I think it’s a great asset to have a piece of team spirit in an individual sport,” he said, adding that he is encouraging his players to watch each other’s matches to bond as a team.

“The idea is to make them spend a lot of time together, and make friends,” he said. “The more time they will spend together, the more they will feel that team spirit.”