[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEERING]
And what do you rank now?
Right now, I moved to 14, which I'm really excited about.
Wow.
Now, it counts.
Yeah, now, it counts.
Yeah.
In my wildest dreams, I didn't expect to move up to 14.
When I went to Australia, I never
expected I'd come back at number 14.
So I was really, really excited about that.
And what do you say to the critics now?
Because they were just counting you out completely.
They were attacking you in all kinds of ways.
Yeah, they were counting me out.
They were calling me large.
They were calling me all kinds of things I didn't understand.
And I mean, honestly, am I large?
[CHEERING]
So thanks.
You look great.
Thank you.
You look fantastic.
I mean, it's hard because I'm not the everyday girl--
I'm a normal girl.
I have a body, and I have-- you know, like normal women.
[CHEERING]
I'm not a size two.
I'll never be a size two.
I'm, like, the woman next door.
And that's how I am.
And I just think they just attacked that.
And I just couldn't understand it.
It's insane.
It is.
That's insane.
You play tennis.
You're an athlete.
And they're going to say--
what does it matter what size you are to them?
You're in shape.
You're an athlete.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
I'm an athlete.
I'm a competitor.
And at the end of the day, that's what I was there to do,
was to compete.
You have a superstition.
What earrings do you wear all the time when you play?
Well, whatever Grand Slam I wear,
whatever I start out with, I try to get something really
big and loud and crazy, and--
To distract your opponent?
No, not all the time.
Yeah.
And then I'll just wear throughout--
I mean, those are just some blue and green earrings.
And they were actually the only earrings I had in Australia.
And then I was like, I have to wear them.
That doesn't slap you in the face when you do a backhand?
They didn't slap me at all.
It looks like they did, but I swear I never
felt it in any of the matches.
And I'm very superstitious.
I didn't know I was so superstitious.
And it's like once I started wearing them, I couldn't stop.
You had to keep wearing them?
I had to keep wearing them.
All right, well, I was worried that these might be too big.
I had something made for you.
But--
[LAUGHTER]
--if those aren't too big--
if you want to take a look at these--
OK, I'm scared.
Your ears are pierced, right?
Woo!
[CHEERING, LAUGHTER]
OK, yeah.
Yeah.
And they have a little bling on the side, too.
This is right up my alley.
Thanks, Ellen.
Yeah, those are fancy.
Thank you so much.
They're not just regular cardboard.
They have diamonds on them.
Oh, yeah, they are.
Yeah.
They're iced out.
All right, you're welcome.
Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
I'm just so happy for you.
And you look fantastic.
Thank you.
You look great.
Thank you.
But let's get back to the heat, because you're that hot.
And you were saying, is this worth it?
How do you get through a match like that?
Honestly, my mom really helped me out.
She told me that you know what, Serena?
Whatever you're going through, your opponent
is in the same conditions.
Mhm.
And it's just at that point, who's tougher?
And so that really helped me out because at one point,
I was just thinking, I can't do this.
Because it was really upsetting because one day I played,
it was, like, 125 on the court.
And then Venus was playing that same day.
And 20 minutes later, when I finished my match,
it dropped, like, 30 degrees.
That's not fair.
It wasn't fair at all.
And I was thinking, this just not fair.
No.
But I just thought it was going to just
be able to help me with the rest of the tournament.
You played your sister there, too, right?
I played her.
I didn't win this time.
No?
Yeah, but it's OK because--
it actually wasn't OK, but--
[LAUGHTER]
But I'm hoping next time--
I love that you tried to lie for a second there.
I did, right?
I couldn't do it at all.
I couldn't do it.
No, you must get mad, right?
I mean, you want to win.
I mean, of course, absolutely.
I mean, I'm the younger sister, so I always
want everything that Venus has.
And you know, I was always so spoiled growing--
I actually still am.
Uh-huh.
But she always spoils me.
So when she wins, I get angry.
But if I win, she's just totally OK with--
she's not OK with it, but like, she's cool.
But if I lose, I give her the evil eye.
Yeah.
Like, [GROWLS], you know?
That's hilarious.
But then eventually, I try to get over it.
But so I know you need to rest from tennis
for just a little while.
But you insisted I play.
I like to see how hard-- because when you watch people,
unless you get to sit in the stands
and see how hard these balls are hit,
you can't really appreciate it.
So I wanted you to smash those faces.
Oh.
Should I go for yours?
Yeah, go for mine.
OK.
Don't go for yours.
I just want to see if you can actually--
But I don't want to smash yours.
Yes, but it's for fun.
You're not hurting me.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm not in there.
But just go for mine.
And however you want to do it-- you can either serve.
You can hit it.
I just want to see-- and how hard are your serves, usually?
How fast?
About 120, 115.
Uh-huh.
[CHEERING]
OK, here we go.
All right.
Oops.
And they call me a professional.
Come on, let her rip.
Come on.
Yep.
[CHEERING]
OK, I'll do a serve.
Oh.
[APPLAUSE]
Oh!
[LAUGHS] That's pretty good.
Come on.
I'm impressed.
[LAUGHS]
Yes!
I got two!
Come on!
You have to hit one.
I will, after that.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
I like that you're in heels, too.
That-- oh.
[CHEERING]
All right.
Your turn.
Yes.
[CHEERING]
Oh!
Oh.
[CHEERING]
All right, that's good.
That's plenty.
They said that you were the greatest athlete ever.
And here's--
Thank you.
Really, she is the greatest.
[CHEERING]
And I have proof-- you've won 22 Grand Slam singles titles.
That's six US Opens, six Australian Opens,
three French Opens, seven Wimbledon Opens.
You've won four Olympic gold medals with Venus.
You've won 14 Grand Slam doubles.
You were ranked number one for 186 consecutive weeks, which
ties the longest run in women's tennis history.
You were the first African-American woman
to win a Grand Slam since 1958.
[CHEERING]
So there.
Yes, thank you.
That is a lot.
And someone like me who's still playing,
and who still really wants to be the best in the world,
you know, I never really read that stuff.
I never really think about it because where I come from,
right here in California, Compton, in fact,
I've come a really long way.
So I'm so grateful for this.
I'm sure you don't because that's just been your life.
But to hear all that at once, all those accomplishments--
and you've had some injuries, and you've had some losses.
And I watched the documentary.
And to see that you were sick, and you had to go out and--
I mean, how do you overcome things
like that, that are mentally draining for you?
It isn't easy.
In the documentary-- it was called Serena--
And you should see it.
I was being really creative.
Yeah.
[LAUGHS] It was actually really great because I was so sick,
I literally thought I wasn't going to play.
I was like, there's no chance I can play.
And then I played.
And then the next day, I was like, OK,
at least I'm going to be better the next day.
The next day, I was worse.
And it kept going like that till literally the final.
And I'm like, how am I still in the tournament?
After the semis, I was in the locker room crying because I
said, I didn't want to win.
I was like, I didn't want to win this match.
Like, why did I win?
And that's how much pain I was in.
But you know, I just lived to survive another day,
and it worked out.
So I feel really good about it.
[APPLAUSE]
First of all, let's show the pictures
because you and your daughter, you dress her.
I assume-- or you're dressing like her.
Either you buy her clothes first and then you dress like her,
or she dresses like you.
But look at the outfits.
Isn't it fun?
Listen, that's my little twin.
I love her so much.
We love-- look at that face.
And how is she at tennis?
Are you asking as a mom, or as--
No, objectively.
--that athlete Serena lady?
No, just as an objective person.
I don't know if I can be objective because I look
at her, and I'm like, oh, that's--
so she'll whup-- my husband will post this amazing video of her
hitting a backhand.
And I'm like, that was a good shot.
But that's not her consistent backhand.
And I'm like, if she wants to play tennis, we've got to--
Yeah.
But I don't push her.
I don't push her because I'm like--
It's not like that at all.
--she's four.
Yeah.
Which makes my dad so amazing because I
couldn't have done that.
Right.
Yeah, so yeah, she's all right.
I would say she needs to--
I've seen four-year-olds that might take her out.
So we have to get her--
But that's not her ambition right now.
Her ambition is playing princess game.
OK.
Yeah, she loves princess games.
And the more we can play anything with princesses,
that's her whole life.
That's fine.
She's four years-- so you enrolled her in tennis classes
with a coach.
But you did not tell the coach that you
were the mother of that child.
That is just cruel.
[LAUGHS] So this is such a funny story
because I don'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.
Right.
So it drives me nuts.
So I was like, I can't.
I don't have the patience for this.
So I signed her up for a class, a private teacher.
And so she came in.
And I was like, I didn't want to tell her.
But I was on my Instagram.
I was like, oh, so I have a class for Olympia
and blah, blah, blah.
And the lady followed me.
So she was like, it could be me.
I could be that-- so she didn't know it was going to be her.
But she was like, I must be in the running of that.
Yeah, so she had a feeling.
She didn't just show up and see it's Serena's daughter.
Yeah.
She kind of had a feeling about it.
But let's talk about the movie.
What a beautiful story to be told, finally.
And I'm so glad that it's out there for people to see how
hard y'all worked, what your entire life was to get to this
place.
Because you are an incredible athlete, clearly.
Thank you.
But how much work went into that?
It takes a lot of work.
And that's what I really loved about the movie,
was the fact that you know so much about us just as players,
and just holding up championships, and holding up
trophies.
But there's so much more that goes into that.
It's every day, it's hard work.
It's so much dedication from my parents,
both my mom and my dad.
And the film was amazing.
It was so cool to see the whole process come together.
It took a really long time.
It got shut down for COVID.
But I was so proud of everyone and how
everything came together.
And yeah, it was a wonderful moment.
And I think the film will live on for a really long time.
For sure it will.
It was a beautiful film.
And you should be proud of it because I
was asking you backstage if it took
a long time to get that made.
Because you would think that that
is a story that people would want to know how
you came to be, you and Venus.
I hit it, and a random question will appear.
All right.
And then you will answer it.
"Who was your celebrity crush growing up?"
Interesting.
I used to make out with a poster because I
put a poster on my wall.
Mhm.
Venus insists that it's weird, but I'm like,
everyone did that.
OK, you remember that--
it wasn't a band, a rap group, Kris Kross?
Sure.
And they wore their pants back then.
Yeah, I was into one of them, Chris Smith.
Chris Smith.
And I used to make out with him on my wall.
I was a teenager.
That's cute, yeah.
Yeah.
Kris Kross will make you, jump--
Jump, jump.
Yeah.
All right, let's see again.
"Best thing about being friends with Beyoncé is?"
Dance lessons, although I haven't gotten them yet,
but yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
But that's a hopeful answer.
Yeah, it is.
It didn't have to be a real answer.
It could be a hopeful answer.
That's a good-- and now, she knows you want that.
Maybe you just had to vocalize it.
Mhm.
All right.
"What's the most frustrating thing
about playing your sister in a match?"
For me, the most frustrating thing
is it's like playing myself.
And I'm pretty tough.
And she's pretty tough.
So she gets every ball back.
Every time I hit a great serve, she's like--
I'm like, [GROWLS].
Like, that's an ace against anybody else.
Right.
And she gets it back.
And I'm like, OK, another shot, so yeah.
Yeah, I see your frustration on the court when you're playing.
I was lucky enough to be at Wimbledon
when you won that year.
And it was quite-- it was incredible,
just to see you play, to be that close to you.
It's different, right?
It's different in person.
The power that you hit a ball with is just insane.
Do you still play a lot?
Yeah, I play all the time.
Yeah?
I haven't played recently, but yeah.
I'm actually going to get back on the court on--
a couple of days, so yeah.
Yeah.
Good.
Do you play pickleball?
I love pickleball.
Isn't it fun?
I love pickleball.
Yeah, and I love that it's everywhere now.
I know, it's very popular.
I'm loving it.
It could be a second career of mine, too.
It should be.
There are professional pickleball players.
I know.
The money isn't as good.
True.
I'm going to stay to tennis, then.
Yeah, sorry.
I was wondering, because some people who play tennis
don't like to play pickleball because it's
a whole different thing.
No, I love it.
It's a lot less running.
Like, those people are too serious.
I know, but I bet you slam that pickleball.
Ooh, yeah.
All right.
[MUSIC PLAYING]