Serena Williams is "adamant she and her coach have never had signals" and that she "does not understand why he admitted to coaching her during the US Open final," according to Emily Ritchie of THE AUSTRALIAN. Williams insisted, in an interview that aired on Ten Network's "The Project," that she "had no idea Patrick Mouratoglou was coaching her throughout the final and that she could not see him, despite the Frenchman admitting he had made hand signals." Williams told interviewer Lisa Wilkinson, "He said he made a motion -- I don't understand what he was talking about. We've never had signals. It was just a really confusing moment." She said that she "wished to put the saga behind her." Williams: "If as a man you want to express yourself, without profanity, you should be able to. As a woman you should be able to do half of what a man can. But I'm just trying to recover from that and move on" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 9/24). NEWS.com.au's Nick Bond reported a protective publicist "momentarily shut down" Wilkinson's interview with Williams after a "curly" question about her "infamous" US Open "meltdown." In Wilkinson's interview, filmed just three days after the incident, "it appears Williams' handlers had given the broadcaster a strict limit on the amount of questions she could ask about the unfolding scandal." The interview was "ostensibly for Williams to discuss a breast cancer awareness campaign she is fronting" in association with her sponsor Berlei, but Wilkinson "had to tackle the elephant in the room." Wilkinson asked the tennis champ "whether she regretted smashing her racquet during the outburst." Williams "hesitated, glancing off camera -- and allowing her publicist to speak up on her behalf." An off-camera voice said, "Sorry, that's four questions about the US Open, so…" Despite the publicist's interjections, Wilkinson instead continued to speak to Williams directly. She asked, "Are you comfortable or not?" as the publicist instructed her to "change topic" (NEWS.com.au, 9/22).
