In a wide-ranging interview with Vogue touching on motherhood, body image and race, Williams said she had set herself a goal of playing Melbourne.
“It’s the most outrageous plan,” the 36-year-old Williams, who is expecting her first child next month.
“I just want to put that out there. That’s, like, three months after I give birth. I’m not walking anything back, but I’m just saying it’s pretty intense.”
Williams said during her pregnancy layoff she had kept a close eye on the tennis world, including her sister Venus’s run to the Wimbledon final.
And she has her eye on matching Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles. She was already pregnant when she won her 23rd at the Australian Open last January.
“Obviously, if I have a chance to go out there and catch up with Margaret, I am not going to pass that up,” Williams said. “If anything, this pregnancy has given me a new power.”
Williams says she’s had a “love-hate relationship with the idea of power” as it relates to her game, sometimes irked that her skill and strategy seemed to be overlooked.
“As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to feel differently about it. Power is beauty. Strength is beauty. So now on the court I want people to think that I’m powerful,” she said.
But she’s dismayed to think that many interpret her on-court determination as “mean” — something she believes has to do with race.
“I feel like people think I’m mean,” she says. “Really tough and really mean and really street. I believe that the other girls in the locker room will say, ‘Serena’s really nice.’ But Maria Sharapova, who might not talk to anybody, might be perceived by the public as nicer. Why is that? Because I’m black and so I look mean? That’s the society we live in. That’s life. They say African-Americans have to be twice as good, especially women. I’m perfectly OK with having to be twice as good.”
Meanwhile, Wimbledon and Australian Open runner-up Venus Williams is preparing this week for the US Open and to become a new aunt with sister Serena giving birth to a baby soon.
Ninth-ranked Venus advanced to the second round at the WTA Cincinnati Open by eliminating US compatriot Alison Riske 6-2, 6-0 in 66 minutes.
But off the court, she’s doing some online shopping for Serena’s baby, and getting some valuable advice from her mother, Oracene Price, who has raised five daughters.
“I have a lot of things in my cart that I’m about to order,” Venus Williams said. “I talked to my mom yesterday. I’m like, ‘Mom, what do you really, really need?’ So she really gave me the low-down.
“So I’m going to get this stuff and as things progress I’ll see what I need after.”
Serena and her fiancee, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, have said they plan to keep the sex of the baby a surprise until birth.
Serena, 35, was pregnant when she beat Venus, 37, in an Australian Open final that was more all-Williams than either knew, winning a 23rd career Grand Slam singles crown, one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record.
In April, Serena revealed on social media that she was pregnant. She is expected to give birth in about another month.
With Serena sidelined, seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus has picked up the family mantle and turned back the clock, making a run to the Wimbledon final last month, losing to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza in a bid for her first Slam crown since 2008.
Venus, who won five Wimbledon and two US Open titles, has been an aunt before, but not when she was old enough to do some serious spoiling and spending on the new arrival.
“This is the first time I’ve been an aunt as an adult,” she said. “So it’s a completely different experience than before when I was a child.”
After a third-round exit in Toronto last week, Williams hopes to put the final fine tuning on her game this week ahead of the year’s final Grand Slam that begins August 28 in New York.
“I just want to play free and feel confident. That’s important,” Williams said. “I need to play my best at all the big events.
“Today was about being measured and being patient and trying to just capitalize on the match.”
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