Serena Williams' quest to win her 24th Grand Slam title and match Margaret Court's all-time major mark was derailed in the Australian Open third round.

Since defeating sister Venus to claim her 23rd major title at the 2017 Australian Open, Serena has suffered four consecutive Grand Slam final losses, including straight-sets defeats to Simona Halep in the 2019 Wimbledon final and to Bianca Andreescu in the US Open final last September.

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Patrick Mouratoglou, Williams' long-time coach, concedes her current strategy "is not working" and asserts they must adopt a new approach if the 38-year-old mom is to make history.

"We have to accept the fact that it is not working," Mouratoglou told BBC Sport. "Maybe come back with a different angle, a different strategy and different goals so she can make it.

"She does feel positive, she feels negative too because it is a failure when she doesn't win a Grand Slam. We have to face reality, but she is positive that she can make it otherwise she probably wouldn't be on a tennis court anymore."

A year ago, Williams played just eight tournaments, completing five of those eight stars. While there is speculation the four-time Gold medal champion could play more events to tune-up for Slams this season, Williams did just that last month winning the Auckland warm-up tournament before bowing to Wang Qiang in the Australian Open third round.

Pointing to her four Grand Slam final appearances in the last two years, Mouratoglou believes Williams is close to matching the record if her body allows her to keep playing.

"We didn't expect at all to be losing so early, or to be losing at all," Mouratoglou said. "She had everything to retire, 23 Grand Slam titles. But she decided to come back, she decided to make all the efforts, the physical efforts, the mental efforts, to come back to the game, with the goal to score more Grand Slams and beat the all-time record

"It's difficult to know how many chances she will have, I don't know how long she is going to be able to play, but being able to reach four Grand Slam finals says a lot about her level, and she's not that far. Her level is good enough but we have to understand what is going on and why she is not able to win one. There is a big difference between reaching a final and winning one."

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