Serena Williams says four-year-old daughter is ‘alright’ at tennis as she reveals why she doesn’t coach her

Athlete says she doesn’t have the ‘patience to teach tennis’

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Serena Williams has spoken candidly about her daughter’s tennis skills, and why she would never teach the four year old herself.

The tennis pro, 40, who shares daughter Olympia with husband Alexis Ohanian, discussed whether the four year old would be following in her footsteps during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

After showing photos of the mother-daughter duo in matching tennis outfits, host Ellen DeGeneres asked Williams how Olympia is at playing tennis.

The question was met with a pause from Williams, who began: “Umm,” before asking DeGeneres to clarify whether she was asking as “a mom, or like, as that athlete Serena lady”.

After DeGeneres said she wanted to know Williams’ thoughts as an “objective person,” the 23-time Grand Slam winner admitted that she didn’t know if she “could be objective”.

Williams then revealed that Olympia can hit a “good backhand,” but that she doesn’t have a “consistent” backhand, before telling DeGeneres that the four year old is “alright”.

“She’s alright. I would say I’ve seen four year olds that might take her out,” the professional tennis player continued, adding that she doesn’t “push” her daughter to practise.

As for what her daughter’s true ambition is, Williams told the host that the four year old’s ambition is “playing princess games”.

Williams then admitted that she enrolled her daughter in tennis lessons, rather than teach her hersellf, because she doesn’t “have the patience to teach tennis”.

“It’s so weird, but I don’t really like to play with people who don’t know how to play tennis well,” she said, to laughter from the audience. “It drives me nuts. So I signed her up for a class, you know, a private teacher.”

However, according to Williams, she didn’t tell her daughter’s tennis coach who she was beforehand, with the athlete admitting to DeGeneres that the instructor only guessed who she would be coaching because she follows Williams on Instagram.

This is not the first time that Wiliams has opened up about her daughter’s tennis skills, as she previously told People that the four year old only started playing during the pandemic because Williams and Ohanian needed to find a way to entertain her.

“Honestly, we started because it’s a socially safe sport, and when Covid happened, it was like, we’re just in the house with a three-year-old, what do we do?” Williams recalled, jokingly adding: “There was only one answer, to my dismay.”