Naomi Osaka and Patrick Mouratoglou’s partnership has come to an end.
Osaka chose to part ways with the former coach of Serena Williams, announcing the split on Sunday. The pair had worked together for less than a year.
On X [Twitter], Osaka said: “Merci Patrick. It was such a great experience learning from you. Wishing you nothing but the best. You are one of the coolest people l’ve ever met and I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
Osaka failed to hit the heights she may have expected of herself while working with Mouratoglou. The Japanese star, a four-time Grand Slam champion, was most recently knocked in the round of 32 by Emma Raducanu at the Washington Open.
Remarkably, Osaka has not won a WTA Tour-level title since her victory at the 2021 Australian Open. However, the 27-year-old has shown signs of returning to her best, having reached the Auckland Open final in January 2025.
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Following the split, Osaka is set to work with Iga Swiatek’s former coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, on a trial basis.
Meanwhile, Mouratoglou has been criticised by one particular journalist for some of his comments during his partnership with Osaka.
Matt Roberts says there were ‘red flags’ present in Osaka and Mouratoglou’s relationship
Speaking on The Tennis Podcast, tennis journalist Catherine Whitaker said Naomi looks lost.
Whitaker said: “She’s lost isn’t she Matt? Naomi Osaka is lost right now.”
Matt Roberts, another tennis journalist, replied: “Yeah and look when she hired Patrick Mouratoglou in the first place, looking at the recent Patrick Mouratoglou history I was always worried about sort of where it might end up that coaching relationship, you know if you look at sort of look at where he left Holger Rune and where he left Simona Halep; probably in a worse place than where he found them.
“And yet I did think that there might be an initial jolt and an initial impact and I think the sort of real shame for Osaka is that in that period in those first few tournaments she had with Mouratoglou, she got injured didn’t she and I actually think she was playing really good tennis then early in this partnership.
“But she was having to retire and she was injured and then as it’s gone on well, in her words the results haven’t been resulting and there’s just been a lot of red flags really over the last few months.
“You know, that statement from Mouratoglou about no stars in women’s tennis, like you’re literally working with Naomi Osaka.
“That press conference in Paris where Osaka spoke about you know not wanting to let him down and how he used to work with the greatest of all time and now he’s seeing that performance after her loss to Badosa. Like that was a red flag of not a healthy player coach relationship.
“Then even at Wimbledon when David had that exchange with Osaka in the press conference and she was like yeah I didn’t know he said that he’d said that but I do see see some stuff that he says when I’m scrolling, and it just wasn’t really sounding good and the results haven’t been over the last few months and yeah lost is kind of a good way to put it really and that very often leads to a coaching change. So I’m not surprised by this one to be honest.”
Who is Tomasz Wiktorowski?
Naomi Osaka’s next coach, on a trial basis, is reportedly the Polish coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.
The Pole, who competed on the ITF junior circuit as a player, coached Poland’s Olympic tennis players in 2012 and 2016.
From 2011 to 2018, Wiktorowski coached Agnieszka Radwanska. During his time working with the Polish player, he helped guide her to the 2012 Wimbledon final and she reached a career high of world number two during his tenure.
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images
The Pole, who has also previously coached the Polish Fed Cup team, was also hired by Iga Swiatek in the 2021 off-season. The pair would work together until October 2024.
AloJapan.com