Serena Williams has admitted that she told herself not to smash a racket after realising her daughter was in the stands for her Canadian Open first round. The former world No 1 earned her first match win in singles after 430 days, downing Nuria Parrizas Diaz 6-3 6-4, and noticed halfway through the first set that four-year-old Olympia was in the stands for the first time before sharing an adorable moment with her in the locker room.
Williams won her first singles match since the 2021 French Open on Monday, downing the world No 57 in an hour and 58 minutes in what was just her second match in the last year. And the victory was made even sweeter after she realised her daughter was watching on in the stands – the first time Olympia has attended one of her matches in full.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion admitted that she told herself she couldn’t smash a racket no matter what once she saw her daughter, explaining the moment she realised Olympia was watching on. “She’s never sat at my match so I was super excited. I looked over and I saw her in the middle of the first set and I was like ‘Oh my god, why is she here?” she laughed.
“And then I went into mum mode like, ‘does she have on her sun cream?’ I was like ‘Okay, shall I say something like take her upstairs to the suite?’ She’s never been to my match so it’s kind of cool that it happened in Toronto but I didn’t expect it but I was like, ‘Okay Serena just let go and and enjoy this’ and it was good for her to have that memory.”
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The pair then shared a cute moment in the locker room, captured on camera as Olympia celebrated her mum’s first victory in over a year. With the former world No 1 holding her hand out, the four-year-old continued to high-five her before choosing to swerve her and spin around in a sassy move, earning a hilarious reaction from Williams and her team.
Williams may now be hoping that Olympia attends her next match, as she awaits the winner of a clash between 12th seed Belinda Bencic and qualifier Tereza Martincova. And the four-year-old could be on double duty, with her aunt Venus also playing the tournament after taking a wildcard, with her first round match against Jil Teichmann expected to be played on Tuesday.
