Serena content to cheer Venus from sidelines
Williams at home awaiting birth of her first child
While the world’s elite tennis stars have spent the last 10 days playing at Wimbledon, the most famous women’s player has been absent with a doctor’s note worthy excuse.
Serena Williams, 35, is into the final weeks of her first pregnancy. The due date hasn’t been released, but it has been reported that Williams and fiancé Alexis Ohanian should be parents to- ward the end of the summer.
On Wednesday evening, Williams took time to speak with USA TODAY Sports by phone and breezily chatted about how she’s getting along in the latter stage of her pregnancy, how she’s preparing for the new arrival and how she’s dealing with not being at Wimbledon.
Williams admittedly is someone who finds sitting still difficult — she traveled, even to the French Open last month, before settling in at home to await the new arrival.
She acknowledges that rest and relaxation has become a premium concern as she prepares for the demands of motherhood.
“You really need to sleep well when you are pregnant because you’re building a whole new hu- man inside of you,” said Williams, who as a celebrity spokesperson for Tempur-Pedic mattresses endorses the message “Sleep Is Power.”
“I’m definitely sleeping a lot more than I usually do. It’s different because when I’m playing I’m usually traveling. When I’m at home I sleep well. I don’t get that quality sleep I need when I’m on the road. Actually it’s been easy to be at home and get things done and do some work from home.”
A seven-time Wimbledon champion, Williams is missing out on playing for only the third time in her career since 1998.
“I’m not really missing not being there,” she said, with a bit of a chuckle. “Under any other circumstance I would be devastated, but this is good.”
She has been watching sister Venus’ progression through the Wimbledon draw from home. On Thursday, Venus reached the women’s final with a straight-sets victory against Johanna Konta.
“I”m so proud of her, and she’s been doing so good,” Serena said of Venus’ Wimbledon performance. “It’s been great to watch her from a distance and be able to continue supporting her.”
While many pregnant women reach a point when they’re ready for the pregnancy part of the equation to end and get on with parenthood, Serena closed the conversation by saying she’s still content to wait a little while longer.
“Baby is not old enough yet,” she said. “I’m not ready — I haven’t done the nursery yet.”