Serena Williams covered her face in embarrassment during a hilarious live interview stitch-up at the Australian Open on Wednesday night.
With a post-match video of her dancing and doing the splits, Serena showed age is just a number as she surged into the third round at Melbourne Park.
Williams overcame Slovenian Tamara Zidansek 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday night, but the video shown in Rod Laver Arena drew just as much applause.
It was taken during off-season training in Florida, and also featured American teen Coco Gauff and fitness guru Shaun T.
Williams didn’t know interviewer Jim Courier was planning on showing the video to the crowd, and cringed with some embarrassment when it started playing.
“We love to dance, Oh gosh, are they going to show the end? Oh no,” she said as she burst out laughing.
“Whenever I see Coco we still do the routine. It’s so funny. We had two days to learn it and then we had to perform it.”
Williams, 38, said she had been mixing up her training with dance and boxing as well as hitting the gym.
Serena continues incredible form
Whatever the seven-times Open champion is doing, it’s working, as she remains unbeaten this year.
Earlier this month in Auckland she won her first title since giving birth to her daughter while this win keeps her on track for her first crown in Melbourne since 2017.
Williams was her own worst enemy against Zidansek.
She showed her frustration with her error count during the second set when she was unable to convert seven break point opportunities and was then forced to save three break points at 2-3 to keep her win on track.
She berated herself before finally screaming “c’mon” as she managed to hold serve.
The 23-time major champion then showed her class by lifting her game to another level to close out the match.
“I was up 40-0 on both her serves, so was a little frustrated,” the American said.
“I think I made so many errors in a row and I just had to battle through that, through my own internal problems.
“I knew I had to play better – I couldn’t keep making unforced errors like that and I knew that I had to step up or it was going to be a really long evening for me.”
She said she felt a little ring-rust given she didn’t qualify for the WTA championships and needed to work out how to get the game back on her terms.
“It was probably the most errors I’ve made since the start of the year,” Williams said.
“So just having to say, ‘OK not every match is going to be perfect, how to work through that’.
“I hadn’t done that since September so it was just kind of working through that and getting through that.”
She next faces China’s world No.29 Wang Qiang.
