Serena Williams’ former coach Rene Stubbs recently expressed her opinion on whether Olympic gold medals compare to Grand Slam titles.
Comparisons between winning a gold medal at the Olympics and winning a Grand Slam trophy have long been part of tennis-related discussions. Earlier on Sunday (October 9), renowned coach Patrick Mouratoglou discussed the topic again.
The Frenchman claimed on Instagram that the lack of historical links between tennis and the Olympics has led to many players prioritizing tour-level events over the latter. He also noted that tennis had not become an official medal sport until recently.
“There’s no real connection between tennis and the Olympics. A lot of tennis players don’t feel like it’s such an important event for tennis. Initially, tennis was in the Olympics, then it was withdrawn, and finally, tennis was reintroduced. ….For a tennis player, the Grand Slams are 100 times more important than the Olympics,” he said.
Rennae Stubbs, who coached Serena Williams in her final year on the WTA Tour, strongly disagrees with Mouratoglou’s assertion that the Olympics are not a major event .
The former player-turned-coach took to her X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday (October 10) to show off the reactions of some tennis players after winning Olympic gold.
The 52-year-old may intend to use their photos – which also include 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal – as actual evidence to challenge Mouratoglou’s views.
“Here are a few pictures of recent Olympic gold medalists. You tell me it means nothing to them,” she wrote.
Among the other photos Stubbs included were Andrei Rublev, Belinda Bencic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Monica Puig, among others People were also visibly ecstatic after experiencing Olympic gold medal glory.
Serena Williams holds the record for most Olympic gold medals in tennis history
Serena Williams, meanwhile, shares the record with her sister Venus as the record holder for most Olympic gold medals in tennis history. The 23-time Grand Slam winner won the women’s singles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
She also partnered with her sister to win doubles gold medals three times: at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics.
Having said that, Venus Williams bests the 42-year-old in terms of their respective medal totals.
Serena Williams won just four medals (all gold). However, Venus went on to win five Olympic medals during her career – a record she shares with Britain’s Catherine McCain Godfrey. The seven-time Grand Slam winner won the women’s singles gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In addition to winning three women’s doubles gold medals with her sister, Williams also won a mixed doubles silver medal with Rajiv Ram at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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