For more than two decades, Serena Williams has been a tennis superhero. Now, she opens up about the challenges she’s overcome to get there—and what it will take to stay number one. “When I play, I’m so in the zone,” Williams says. “You have to purge your mind of everything.”
“I am who I am. I love who I am,” Serena Williams says. “Just that whole attitude of being strong and powerful—that’s something I can get behind.” It’s Sunday afternoon, and Williams is sitting poolside in the backyard of her Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, home, having just clocked a few hours of practice as she gears up for the most important stretch of her year.
At the time of our conversation, she’s preparing to compete in at least three Grand Slam tournaments. But her sentiment could apply to any number of undertakings—her total dominance on the court, her successful fashion line or her soft twerking with Bey—that she’s approached with the same dynamism throughout her career. In 2016, Serena marked her 21st year as a pro: It’s more than two decades in, and we still cannot look away.
Serena Williams’ take on the haters?
Williams’ take on the haters? “I love my body, and I would never change anything about it,” she says. “I’m not asking you to like my body. I’m just asking you to let me be me. Because I’m going to influence a girl who does look like me, and I want her to feel good about herself.”
Some of Williams’s closest friends are also her fiercest competitors, like BFF Caroline Wozniacki, who has credited Williams for being an unwavering pillar of support after her engagement to golfer Rory McIlroy was called off in 2014. The role is a recurring one for Williams.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says that after her husband’s death last year, she learned that Williams “personifies what it means to be a friend. She called and texted every few days to tell me, ‘You have my strength.’ She was there through my hardest hours of grief, no matter what she had going on.” Williams is also devoted to her family.
Of her sister, she says, “Venus is the best. I look up to her, and I always wonder, if I was the older sister, would I have set the good example that she set for me?” The two shared a house until earlier this year, when Serena moved into her own home in an adjacent gated community. She adds, “I hate playing Venus. She’s the toughest opponent I’ve ever faced.”
“I am who I am. I love who I am,” Serena Williams says. “Just that whole attitude of being strong and powerful—that’s something I can get behind.”
