Team Williams has the utmost respect for Bianca Andreescu, branding the teenage upstart a world No.1 in waiting, but Patrick Mouratoglou insists his superstar charge has never been more equipped to finally match Margaret Court.
Serena Williams, turning 38 in two weeks, will play the Canadian for the US Open title in a mouth-watering battle of the generations on Saturday.
Andreescu, 19 and making her main-draw debut in New York, wasn’t even born when Williams snared the first of her six Open crowns in 1999.
As Williams said, she’s played across – and seen off – countless rivals from “five generations” in an unparalleled 25-year pro career.
Now Mouratoglou believes the American is up against the sport’s future.
“I’m not surprised she’s there. I expected her in final, and I think she’s going to be No.1,” Mouratoglou said on Friday.
“She has everything that’s needed to be No.1. A lot of respect for her, a lot of tools in her game. Like a really complete game. She has the whole package.
“The game’s amazing: the physical, the athleticism and the mental. She looks incredibly confident. She feels like she’s where she belongs. That’s the impression she gives.”
With 44 wins, premier-level titles in Indian Wells and Toronto and just four defeats in 2019, Andreescu’s meteoric rise from No.178 in the world at season’s start has been anything but a fluke.
The Canadian can count former No.1s and major champions Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams are among her scalps.
“She’s a great player,” Williams said.
“She mixes things up. You never know what is going to come from her. She does everything else. She serves well, moves well, has a ton of power.
“She’s very exciting to watch.”
But Williams is primed to show she remains the pre-eminent force in the game and ready to bury the demons of defeats to Simona Halep, Kerber and Naomi Osaka last year in New York in her past three slam finals since the birth of daughter Olympia in September 2017.
“It’s totally different situation now, because now she can move,” Mouratoglou said after claiming Williams had finally overcome a knee injury that dogged her for three years.
“If she needs to play the rally, she can play the rally. So there is no panic if she misses a bit more than usual. No problem. There are other options of play.
“You cannot even give her a plan B when she cannot make the plan B. So I feel she’s so much more confident now because she knows she’s ready.
“It’s difficult for us to realise, because she was in three finals so you feel she’s ready – but she was in the three finals because she’s the best competitor of all times, not because she was ready.”
Williams lost the plot against Osaka, docked a point and later a game for swearing at then abusing umpire Carlos Ramos after being sanctioned for illegal coaching from Mouratoglou.
But she’s promising no repeat against Andreescu in her bid to finally match Court’s all-time record of 24 singles slams.
“Obviously there’s a lot of things that I’ve learned in the past,” Williams said.
“I just have to go out there, above all, most of all, just stay relaxed. There’s so many different emotions in finals. It just brings out so many highs and lows, nerves and expectations. It’s a lot.”
