Glamour's cover star and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams responds to popular misconceptions and assumptions about tennis and the athletes who participate in the sport. Can you play tennis while pregnant? Should you not wear makeup while playing sports? Is singles harder than doubles? Is it better to play in skirts rather than shorts? Do professional tennis players hate Wii Tennis? Find out what myths are false and which ones ring true as Serena sets out to clear the air.
Director: Ali Farooqui
Director of Photography: Kevin Layne
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Serena Williams
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Coordinating Producer: Anastasia Sanger
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Caitlin Brody
Camera Operator: Christian Lindbury
Audio Engineer: Justin Hall
Production Assistant: Debby Sanchez
Stylist: Christine Nicholson
Groomer: Tawnee David
Hair & Make-Up: Angela Meadows; Sheika Daley
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Special Thanks: Accord Productions
Filmed on Location at: Lady Jean Ranch
Director: Ali Farooqui
Director of Photography: Kevin Layne
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Serena Williams
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Coordinating Producer: Anastasia Sanger
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Caitlin Brody
Camera Operator: Christian Lindbury
Audio Engineer: Justin Hall
Production Assistant: Debby Sanchez
Stylist: Christine Nicholson
Groomer: Tawnee David
Hair & Make-Up: Angela Meadows; Sheika Daley
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Special Thanks: Accord Productions
Filmed on Location at: Lady Jean Ranch
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Professional tennis players hate Wii Tennis.
00:03I personally hate Wii Tennis,
00:05only because I work out so much on the court,
00:08I don't really want to work out,
00:09because I do that all day anyway.
00:10♪♪
00:17Hi, Glamour. It's Serena here.
00:19I am here to debunk some myths about tennis and beyond.
00:23You have to choose between sports and family.
00:26Hmm. That's a good one.
00:28I think at some point you do have to choose
00:30if you want to have kids.
00:32But for me, I decided to choose being a mom.
00:35I never thought I would say that,
00:36but just hanging out with my girls
00:39and spending time with them
00:40and just showing up every day as an achievement,
00:43and it's not easy.
00:44I can't think of anything else that I have achieved
00:48that's better or greater than that.
00:49All tennis players make good pickleball players.
00:53I think that would be true.
00:54I don't play pickleball,
00:55but I think if you play good tennis or tennis,
00:58you could probably play pickleball really well.
01:00So I would say that's true.
01:02If you do play pickleball,
01:03you're probably not going to be as good at tennis,
01:06because tennis is a different sport.
01:08Like, you can go from tennis to pickleball.
01:09I don't think you can necessarily go
01:10from pickleball to tennis, so definitely a myth there.
01:14You can't wear makeup while you play sports.
01:17Okay, so that is definitely a myth.
01:20You can wear all kinds of makeup.
01:21I mean, that's why I created Win Beauty,
01:23because you can still be powerful
01:26and still be sporty and still look amazing
01:28while you're doing it.
01:28So here I am at the Eiffel Tower at the Olympics
01:31at the opening ceremony in Paris, my favorite city.
01:35And they told me like four days before,
01:37like, oh, we want you to do the opening ceremonies
01:39and we want you to be in the boat,
01:40go in the Seine and open the Olympics.
01:43And I was like, what am I going to wear?
01:45Of course it was pouring rain that day too,
01:47but the makeup didn't move.
01:49Win Beauty does not move.
01:50My lashes did fall off.
01:52They're in the Seine.
01:53Everything else is fine.
01:54I hope one of the triathlons, triathletes,
01:56didn't get hit by one of my lashes.
01:58Singles is harder than doubles.
02:01Honestly, I think for me,
02:03doubles may have been a little bit harder
02:05because I never wanted to let my partner down,
02:07which was Venus.
02:08Like in singles, if you make a mistake,
02:10it's one thing, it's on you.
02:11But if you make a mistake in doubles,
02:12it's like, oh, I'm letting my partner down.
02:14That was a lot of pressure for me
02:16because I never wanted to let her down.
02:18Favorite memory from doubles, impossible.
02:20So many great memories.
02:21Obviously winning the Olympic gold three times
02:24was really cool.
02:25I had to think about it.
02:26One of my best memory in doubles is actually us losing
02:29and Venus is losing our mind on the court
02:31because she's so calm.
02:32And I was laughing the whole time
02:34and we lost like four points
02:35because I couldn't stop laughing.
02:37Challengers didn't accurately portray tennis.
02:40Well, I think they did a really good job
02:42considering they were all actors
02:43and they were just learning how to play tennis.
02:45I think they did a really good job with that.
02:47It was really kind of interesting
02:49to see these characters play these roles
02:52that I'm not used to seeing them play.
02:53I did see the movie and I don't know,
02:56I think they were pretty accurate
02:57in terms of the challengers.
02:59Like this was a movie about challengers.
03:01It wasn't a movie about grand slams
03:03and the bigger tournaments.
03:04Challengers is definitely really tough
03:06and there are moments where, you know,
03:08some of the players are really fighting to make ends meet.
03:10So I think they did a pretty good job.
03:12I have a docuseries on ESPN
03:14and it is diving deeper into moments.
03:17A lot of you all see the moments where I win
03:19and you hold up a trophy or anyone wins in sports
03:22and you see that last match,
03:23but you don't see all the things that led into that.
03:26Like who was helping on the sidelines?
03:29What was going on in that particular day
03:31or that particular tournament?
03:32What injuries you had to work through?
03:35Like things that you don't even think about
03:38that no one ever tells these stories.
03:40It's deep.
03:41I cry a lot in it and it's really raw and emotional
03:44and I'm very open in this docuseries.
03:46You can't play tennis while pregnant.
03:51Well, I kind of did.
03:53I was, oh my gosh,
03:54I ended up being like nine weeks pregnant when I finished,
03:57but yeah, you can definitely play tennis while being pregnant
03:59if that's your normal.
04:00If you play tennis before,
04:02then you can continue to do it while you're pregnant.
04:04Skirts are better to play than shorts.
04:07I personally like playing in a skirt.
04:08Like I love playing in skirts.
04:11So I'm gonna say that skirts are better to play in
04:13than shorts, but a lot of people feel the other way,
04:15but that's a personal opinion.
04:17So you have to pick and choose on what you're comfortable in
04:20and I love wearing tennis dresses.
04:22I think they're versatile.
04:23Honestly, I wear my tennis skirt walking around the house.
04:26I wear it to work out.
04:27I wear it to the gym.
04:28I wear it to the grocery store.
04:29Like you can not get me out of the tennis skirt
04:31and then tennis dresses are cute.
04:33I actually wear my tennis dress when I go play golf
04:35because it's just cute.
04:36So they're very versatile.
04:38Professional tennis players hate Wii tennis.
04:42I personally hate Wii tennis
04:44only because I work out so much on the court.
04:46I don't really want to work out
04:47because I do that all day anyway.
04:49I like the other one.
04:50I like to play on my Game Boy
04:51and just play the sitting down version.
04:53I don't want to like necessarily get up and move.
04:55I think Wii tennis is, I remember it first came out.
04:57It was actually kind of cool,
04:59but again, I'm playing tennis and running every day.
05:02So kind of like, I didn't necessarily want to do it at home.
05:05I do like the Wii fitness though.
05:07That's fun.
05:07I think it should be done as a workout.
05:09I think it should be classified as a workout.
05:12So when I was finished,
05:13I didn't necessarily want to go work out again.
05:15But if you hadn't worked out,
05:16I would highly recommend Wii tennis.
05:18Grunts are for show.
05:20Grunts are so not for show.
05:22Like I love grunting.
05:23First of all, I think it's kind of cool.
05:24And second of all, it's a way of breathing.
05:26So when I'm like actually grunting,
05:28it's not just a noise, it's a breath.
05:31Maybe some people grunt for show.
05:33I don't, I grunt it for breathing.
05:34Bunny ears are the best way to tie shoes.
05:37You know, I was teaching my daughter how to tie shoes
05:39and I could not do bunny ears.
05:41My sister actually had to teach her how to tie shoes.
05:44Cause I don't do bunny ears.
05:45I do like the single one ear and then I do like a,
05:48I don't know.
05:49My method is way advanced.
05:51I didn't know how to simplify it for like a five-year-old.
05:54So.
05:55Speaking on that,
05:55are you a sock, shoe, sock, shoe person
05:58or are you a sock, sock, shoe, shoe?
06:01What's a sock, shoe, sock, shoe?
06:03So there's some people who put a sock on
06:04and then they put the shoe on.
06:06Or the next sock on and then they put the next shoe on.
06:08I'm a sock, sock, shoe, shoe.
06:10How can you be anything different?
06:11Like, that's just weird.
06:12It throws your body off balance.
06:15You can get tennis elbow without playing tennis.
06:18Yeah, you can get tennis elbow playing pickleball or golf.
06:20So for those who don't know what tennis elbow is,
06:23it's I guess when the inside of your elbow hurts.
06:25I actually never had tennis elbow.
06:27Or if I did, it was for a day and I don't remember it.
06:29So I guess it's when your elbow hurts,
06:31but on the inside, not the outside.
06:33I think the outside technically is golf elbow
06:35and the inside is tennis elbow.
06:37Don't, I don't know.
06:38It's an advantage to serve with new balls.
06:41Is it an advantage?
06:42I don't know.
06:43I just served with whatever.
06:45I didn't think about it, whatever.
06:46You give me a ball, I'm serving an ace.
06:48At least I'm gonna try.