'Hard to take from a guy': Serena reveals coach's stunning breastfeeding request

Tennis legend Serena Williams has opened up on a shocking piece of breastfeeding advice her coach gave her in order perform at her peak on the court.

After recently suffering the worst loss of her career, Serena opened up to Time magazine, revealing her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told her to stop breastfeeding her baby in order to be successful.

‘‘It’s absolutely hard to take from a guy,’’ Williams said.

However Williams ignored the advice, continuing to make her baby, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, her number one priority, even throughout a rigorous training regime.

‘‘He’s not a woman, he doesn’t understand that connection, that the best time of the day for me was when I tried to feed her,” she said.

“I’ve spent my whole life making everyone happy, just servicing it seems like everyone. And this is something I wanted to do.

‘‘You have the power to sustain the life that God gave her. You have the power to make her happy, to calm her. At any other time in your life, you don’t have this magical superpower.’’

Mouratoglou also revealed his stance to Time, stating he saw Serena repeatedly put her family ahead of her career ahead of her return to tennis.

“I felt the decisions were taken through the angle of the family, where before, every decision was taken through the angle of tennis,” Mouratoglou told Time.

“This is a big difference. Even if you are Serena, if you want to be successful in tennis, tennis has to be priority No. 1.”

Eventually Williams relinquished, and decided to stop nursing Olympia in order to get her body back into shape.

“I looked at Olympia, and I was like, ‘Listen, Mommy needs to get her body back, so Mommy’s going to stop now.’ We had a really good conversation. We talked it out,” she said.

The 23-times grand slam winner recently suffered the worst loss of her career, falling to Britain’s Johanna Konta 6-1, 6-0 in California.

Following that loss, a clearly tired Williams announced she’d be taking a break from tennis, in order to spend more time with her young daughter and family.

She recently returned to the professional circuit to partake in the Cincinnati Open, where she was bundled out in the round of 32 by Petra Kvitova.

The tragic twist behind worst loss of Serena’s career

Just 10 minutes before the heaviest defeat of her career last month, Serena Williams received some awful news.

Serena revealed to Time Magazine that shortly before the crushing loss to Johanna Konta, she learned the killer of her sister Yetunde Price had been paroled.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion was stunned 6-1, 6-0 by her British opponent on July 31 in San Jose, California.

The defeat marked the first time in 928 professional matches that Williams failed to win more than one game.

At the time she spoke of having “so many things on my mind” without elaborating.

But in a wide-ranging interview with Time, she said that 10 minutes before she took the court she learned via Instagram that the man convicted of killing Price in a drive-by shooting in 2003, had been released from prison earlier in the year after serving 12 years of a 15-year sentence.

“I couldn’t shake it out of my mind,” she said.

“No matter what, my sister is not coming back for good behaviour.

“It’s unfair that she’ll never have an opportunity to hug me.”

In discussing Maxfield, Williams noted biblical passages on forgiveness, but admitted “I’m not there yet.”

“I want to forgive,” she said. “I have to get there. I’ll be there.”

Price had three children who were aged 11, nine and five when she died.

“It was hard because all I think about is her kids, and what they mean to me. And how much I love them,” Williams said.