The athlete is outsourcing her daughter's tennis lessons.
Serena Williams’ daughter, Alexis Olympia, is her “twin” in the fashion department, but not on the tennis court! On Monday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the tennis champion reveals her and Alexis Ohanian’s 4-year-old daughter may need a little more work on the court.
“So how is she at tennis?” DeGeneres asks. Williams wonders if the host is asking her as a mom or as a tennis player. When DeGeneres says “objectively,” Williams notes that’s not possible.
“I don’t know if I can be objective,” she quips. “So, my husband will post this amazing video of her hitting a backhand and I'm like, ‘That was a good shot, but that’s not her consistent backhand.’ And I’m like, ‘If she wants to play tennis we got to.’ But I don’t push her cause I’m like, she’s four. Which makes my dad [Richard Williams] so amazing cause I couldn’t have done that.”
Little Olympia may need a little more practice before she can take on other kids in her age group.
“She's alright,” Williams says. “I've seen 4 year olds that might take her out.”
As for Olympia getting lessons from her mother, she can’t really count on it. “I don’t have the patience to teach tennis,” Williams says. “I don’t really like to play with people who don’t know how to play tennis well. It drives me nuts.”
Serena shares that she hired a private tennis instructor to come in and give her daughter lessons. However, she didn’t reveal her identity until the coach arrived at her house.
“I signed her up for a class, a private teacher,” she says. “So, she came in and I didn’t want to tell her. But I was like on my Instagram, I was like, ‘Oh, I have a class for Olympia.’ The lady followed me, so she was like, ‘It could be me.’ So, she didn’t know it was going to be her but she had a feeling about it.”
Good thing for Serena, her daughter’s focus isn’t 100 percent on the game.
“Her ambition is playing princess games,” the King Richard producer says. “She loves princess games and the more we can play anything with princesses that’s her whole life.”
Olympia’s tennis life is often documented on her mother’s social media accounts. In April, Williams shared a video of her and her “mini” taking each other on while on the tennis court. "Sometimes it be ya own mini," Williams captioned the post.
In the video, Williams gears up to serve as the camera pans to Olympia. “Really, this is nuts,” the athlete says before hitting the ball, while Olympia swings and misses. Although she didn’t have the support of her opponent, Olympia’s dad was in the comments with extra support.
"I refuse to believe @olympiaohanian missed that,” Ohanian wrote.
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