Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players to ever play the game, and much of her success is owed to her father, Richard Williams. When Serena gave birth to her first daughter, Olympia, people wondered if she would follow in her mom’s footsteps and pick up a racquet. Naturally, Serena would teach her daughter how to play tennis, but it’s unknown how much she is going to encourage Olympia to follow the path she did. Whenever she’s given the chance, Serena gives her dad the praise he deserves for pushing her and her sister Venus so hard, and it sounds like she might need some of his brand of coaching when it comes to Olympia.
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Serena has a lot of admiration for her dad.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Serena admitted that she might have to call in her dad to coach Olympia and her 9-month-old sister Adira the way he coached her and Venus.
“I always look at my dad, and I think, 'How were you able to do that?' Because I'm like, 'Oh, they're so cute. I just want them to relax and I don't want to over-push them,'” she said.
She gives her dad a lot of credit for her success.
“But I would be devastated if I wasn't pushed, because we wouldn't be having this interview and there would never have been a Serena Williams. So I feel so fortunate that I had an opportunity to have that extra oomph,” she added, admitting she was having trouble “connecting to that extra push” though she knows the benefits of having someone who will push hard.
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Serena knows her limits as a tennis coach.
Serena admitted that even though she isn’t entirely sure how to push her girls, she sees potential in 6-year-old Olympia. “Olympia is such a bright light, and she's so athletic, to the point where it's just not even humanly possible,” Serena said. “Even Venus, she was like, 'That kid has more talent than you and I combined,' and she's not lying.
“I'm just trying to figure out a way to harness all that. I already told my dad, 'Maybe you have to coach her, because I'm too nice,’” she confessed.
Olympia is gaining a better understanding of who her mom is.
This spring, Serena talked to People about the ways she can share her legendary tennis career with Olympia now that she’s getting older. “She's at an age now where I can kind of open up to her a little bit more and she can understand things more, whereas she didn't really understand before," she said.
“I told her the other day that she actually was in my belly when I won a big tournament, and she was surprised,” added Serena, who was pregnant when she won the Australian Open.
Olympia is very aware of her mom's success.
But along with understanding the magnitude of her mom’s career, Olympia is also beginning to understand that her mom isn’t quite like all of the other moms out there.
“I said, ‘You know how mommy is a little famous?’ She's like, ‘No, no, no, you're really, really, really …’ And I'm just like, ‘Oh my god, no, no, no.’ She was like, ‘No, yes you are. You're a great tennis player,’” Serena shared.
