The 36-year-old new mother and tennis champion Serena Williams returned to the court over the weekend, marking her first public tennis appearance since welcoming her 3-month-old daughter, Alexis Olympia, and marrying Alexis Ohanian.
She and sister Venus Williams took hit a few rounds on the tennis court as they hosted “A Family Affair, Presented by Oath” at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center in Washington, D.C. to raise money for their Compton-based Yetunde Price Resource Center.
If you remember, their eldest sister Yetunde, who the center was named after, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2003. The sisters launched the center in 2016.
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And why wouldn't she go back to the tennis court so soon? After all, she did win the Austrailian Open when she was eight weeks pregnant.
Here's how it all went down:
Roughly a week before the beginning of the Australian Open, in Melbourne, last January, after playing poorly in her first match of the year, in which she felt she had missed too many backhands. Serena went and spent two and a half to three hours on the practice court and did roughly the same the next practice day.
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But according to her Vanity Fair interview, she felt a little different physically the next day. She had unexpectedly thrown up at one point and her breasts had enlarged. She thought it might be hormonal. But her friend Jessica Steindorff immediately suspected something else and suggested a pregnancy test. So Jessica went to a pharmacy and bought a pregnancy kit.
“I’ll take it just because (a) to prove you wrong and (b) because it’s fun, whatever. It’s like a joke. Why not?”
as Serena was doing her hair and makeup for an event sponsored by the lingerie company Berlei, where she is a spokesperson for its line of sports bras, she took the test in the bathroom. “I put it down. I went back to finishing hair and makeup, was laughing, talking. I was getting the styling done. An hour and a half later, I went back to the bathroom and I totally forgot about it because it was impossible for me. . . . So I went back to get dressed and I went back in the bathroom and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that test.’ ”
Serena, as she put it, “did a double take and my heart dropped. Like literally it dropped."
“Oh my God, this can’t be—I’ve got to play a tournament,” said Serena. “How am I going to play the Australian Open? I had planned on winning Wimbledon this year.”
So what does a woman do when they don't believe the results of a test? They take it again. Or in Serena's case,...
... she took it another five times.
Test number 2: Positive. Test number 3: Positive. Test number 4: Positive. Test number 5: Positive. Test number 6: Positive.
Yes, Serena took a total of six total pregnancy tests--all them came back positive. So what happens now?
After telling her then fiance now husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, via a paper bag with the six positive pregnancy tests it was no time to bask in the glow of impending motherhood. It was back to work for Serena.
Now, it's back to work again with even more good news. According to Serena, per her Instagram account, "Nike announced yesterday that of it's new world headquarters buildings will be named after me. It will be the biggest on campus and is scheduled to open in 2019. I am honored and grateful."
Black and beautiful. Go Serena!
