Serena Williams won the Australian Open in 2017 when she was pregnant. Her daughter, Olympia, is now 4 (she turns 5 on Thursday), and was at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night to watch her mother compete.
She also nearly stole the show on the ESPN broadcast.
As Williams hit aces and swing volleys, which have come to define her game and legacy, Olympia sat nearby in Williams’s player’s box. She donned braids with white beads on them, paying homage to a style her mother wore when she won her first U.S. Open in 1999. Olympia also wore a black bedazzled top that matched the one her mother wore on court.
“It was either her wear beads or me,” Williams said during a news conference after her win.
“I wanted to do it but I just didn’t have the time,” she said, before adding that Olympia has asked to wear beads a lot.
“I was so happy when she had them on, it’s perfect on her.” she said.
Olympia — whose full name is Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. — watched Williams play, but also spent time going back and forth between playing with Isha Price’s hair and sitting in her father’s lap, clapping. Price is one of Williams’s sisters.
“I look forward to just being a mom,” Williams said during a post-match ceremony. “She’s such a good girl and I just want to be a good mom to her.”
Williams began her farewell essay in Vogue with an anecdote about Olympia and how she felt she needed to choose between tennis and family:
Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia. I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital—although things got super complicated on the other side. And I almost did do the impossible: A lot of people don’t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017. But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give.
After the match, Olympia and her father went up to the player’s lounge to get ice cream.
Source: Tennis - nytimes.com
