Williams set to close in on fellow Americans

This time last year the naysayers were once again writing Williams off and it was easy to see why.

The American had, after all, just crashed out of the French Open in the first round to then world number 111 Virginie Razzano.

The French Open was supposed to be the chance for Williams to re-establish herself following a testing and turbulent three-year period.

Williams was fined and disqualified for an expletive-laden tirade at a line judge at the US Open in 2009 and the following year she needed surgery on both of her feet after stepping on glass in a Munich restaurant.

So it was no surprise to see critics writing her epitaph when she lost to Razzano in a fiery-tempered match at Roland Garros.

Many decreed that Williams’s love for the game was low as ever, that she needed to re-discover the drive and focus that helped her hold all four majors at the beginning of 2003.

But she seems to have found new inspiration from Mouratoglou – the 43-year-old coach who has helped develop the careers of Laura Robson, Grigor Dimitrov and Marcos Baghdatis through his academy on the outskirts of the French capital.

Williams is now two majors short of the 18 held by fellow Americans Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert and four shy of record holder Steffi Graf.

Mouratoglou thinks Williams will get them.

He said: “She needs two more titles and, yes, I think she’s going to get them. When she is in the right state of mind, she is unbeatable.”