MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams does not understand why her coach admitted giving her instructions from the sidelines during her controversial US Open women’s final.
Speaking about her angry outburst earlier this month, Williams maintained in an interview on Network Ten she was not being coached during the match, which she lost to Japan’s Naomi Osaka, despite her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, subsequently acknowledging he was trying to send Williams a signal.
“I just don’t understand what he was talking about because I asked him, you weren’t coaching, we don’t have signals, we’ve never had signals and he said he made a motion,” she told The Sunday Project.
“So you said you made a motion, now you told people that you’re coaching me, that doesn’t make sense, why would you say that,” she said of her discussion with her coach.
Williams did not answer a question about whether she regretted the decision to break her racket on the court, with footage showing her publicist stepping in during the interview.
The six-time US Open champion, who was chasing a record-equalling 24th grand slam title, was handed a coaching violation and a point penalty for breaking her racket before a heated argument with umpire Carlos Ramos ended with her losing a game.
The tournament referee’s office fined the former world No.1 $10,000 for the “verbal abuse” of Ramos, $4,000 for being warned for coaching and $3,000 for smashing her racket.
Williams said she wanted to move on from the controversy.
“What I’m just trying to do most of all is to just recover from that,” she told The Sunday Project.