Serena Williams of the US hits a return in opposition to Venus Williams of the US in the course of the ladies’s singles ultimate on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis event in Melbourne on January 28, 2017.
Greg Wooden | Afp | Getty Photos
BERLIN — It was a powerful sufficient sporting feat when Serena Williams received a report twenty third Grand Slam singles title on the 2017 Australian Open, beating her sister Venus within the ultimate. Quickly after got here a revelation: she had been pregnant on the time.
“I do not know the way I did that, actually,” Williams stated at an occasion Wednesday, deciding on the second as an important of her tennis profession.
It has been fairly the profession — after successful her first Grand Slam on the U.S. Open in 1999, Williams went on to turn out to be the one participant to have achieved the “Golden Slam” — successful the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open and getting an Olympic gold medal — in each singles and doubles tennis.
“I do not know what I used to be doing then, I used to be 9 weeks pregnant … I do bear in mind not with the ability to run for a very long time,” Williams stated on the SuperReturn personal fairness convention in Berlin.
“I did not inform anybody. I imply, Venus knew, and I nonetheless really feel actually dangerous about that, as a result of a deep a part of me appears like as a result of we performed one another within the ultimate, I am like, she will need to have recognized, and he or she will need to have felt some kind of deep heaviness to go even additional and go all out. However she was solely certainly one of two people who knew.”
Early being pregnant signs could be intense because the physique undergoes an enormous transformation, with a surge in hormones typically resulting in fatigue, breathlessness and nausea.
“I bear in mind saying, I’ve to do loads of aces, I’ve to do loads of winners,” Williams continued, referring to some extent scored instantly from a serve. “I can solely play, like, 4 balls and I am accomplished.”
“I bear in mind one time taking part in an extended level in opposition to one participant, and I could not breathe. And I am like, How does she not see that I am not in a position to breathe proper now, and so I simply deliberately misplaced the subsequent level simply to sort of try to get my power again. However then I used to be like: Why am I taking part in this far pregnant? That is nuts.”
US tennis legend Serena WIlliams (R) poses for a selfie {photograph} along with her daughter Olympia and husband Alexis (C) forward of kick-off within the English Girls’s FA Cup ultimate soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, in north west London, on Might 18, 2025.
Justin Tallis | Afp | Getty Photos
Williams, who has two daughters with investor and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, stepped again from skilled tennis in 2022 to concentrate on her household.
Sports activities stars reminiscent of bicycle owner Laura Kenny have spoken in recent times concerning the challenges of balancing an intense and bodily demanding profession with a want to get pregnant, whereas tennis participant Naomi Osaka has criticized public commentary that one should be sacrificed for the opposite.
‘You do not have to only keep in a single lane’
Williams now runs enterprise capital fund Serena Ventures, which has 40 portfolio corporations.
She instructed the packed viewers of personal fairness professionals that the qualities that made her obsessive about successful in sports activities translated to a single-minded focus as an investor.
“I do bear in mind at one level, strolling on the courtroom at Wimbledon, and my associate on the time known as me a couple of deal that we have been attempting to shut,” she recalled.
“I used to be on Court docket One which day, and it is a actually lengthy stroll. And I bear in mind speaking to her on the cellphone, and within the dialog, she’s like … How’s your day going? I am like: Properly, I am strolling on the courtroom proper now. And she or he’s similar to: Are you kidding me? You need to get off the cellphone. I am like, okay, it is positive. It is a lengthy stroll. I’ve accomplished it earlier than. In order that’s how intense, how intentional I’m,” Williams stated.
She famous that she appears for founders who’re obsessive about being the very best at what they do and altering the lives of individuals they wish to influence.
Her earliest funding was within the American soccer crew Miami Dolphins in 2009, when she was the world’s top-ranked feminine participant.
“We acquired so many dangerous articles about why we should not be doing this. We have to simply concentrate on tennis, and we have to not take into consideration this,” she stated of the response from the media and sporting world on the time.
“Now as an athlete, we’re on the level the place when you’re solely doing basketball or when you’re solely doing soccer, when you’re solely doing tennis, it is like, nicely, what else are you doing? So we gave people who platform to be like, it is okay. You may also be an entrepreneur, and you are able to do sport. You do not have to only keep in a single lane, you realize, and simply do one factor.”
