Serena Williams turned 38 years old in September. She’s already confirmed to play the Australian Open in January, and there will be massive expectations on her yet again. I hate that. I hate that we can’t just let Serena exist and live and play because she wants to play. The expectations are because people want her to “break” Margaret Court’s Slam count – Court has 24 Slam titles in singles, IF we’re counting pre-Open Era titles and IF we’re pretending like Court didn’t win the Australian Open a million times when it was barely competitive. Everybody wants Serena to get to 24, and then get to 25. The question I’ve always had is this: is Serena still playing because she loves it, or because she doesn’t want there to be any debate, any asterisk, any question about her GOAT status? She’s already the GOAT, in my opinion. Debate over.

Part of the urgency with all of these conversations is about Serena’s age AND whether she’s still capable of playing well enough over two weeks AND being able to close in a final. She hasn’t won a title at any level since coming back to the tour after giving birth to her beautiful daughter Olympia. Not to mention, does Serena want another kid? Olympia also celebrated a birthday in September – she turned 2 years old. When Serena was opening her pop-up shop in Miami this week, she spoke to Page Six about babies and a sibling for Olympia:

Tennis champ Serena Williams is worried she’s waited too long to have her next child. Williams, who has daughter Alexis Olympia with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, told us, “I’m, like, ‘Oh my God, I wanted her to have a sibling and it’s getting farther and farther away.’ She’s 2 and I always wanted [them to be closer in age] because I am so close to my sister [Venus]. We are 15 months apart and I’m like, ‘That ship has sailed.’ We’ll see, I obviously want more.”

Williams, 38, is in Miami showing off her S by Serena fashion line at Faena Bazaar, telling us that this year’s collection, which is full of sequins, animal print and velvet, is “a celebration for women who want to be seen and heard and to make an impact and make a statement.”

Williams, who has called out sexism in tennis and been vocal about a number of issues, says outspoken women inspire her. “I’m inspired by women who aren’t afraid of consequences for speaking out for something positive,” she told us. “It’s not always easy. It’s really inspiring and sometimes scary to stand up for what’s right and it’s not always the most popular thing to do… Years later or months later or even weeks later, it becomes a bigger statement than what it is sometimes at the moment. Or other people are influenced and want to speak out too.”

[From Page Six]

First of all, I doubt her body would have “let” her give birth to another kid so quickly after she almost died with postpartum complications in 2017. It was always going to take some time for Serena’s body to heal and for her to figure out her next steps. She put pressure on herself to return to the tour too quickly, and from there… I think she decided that she was putting off Baby #2 until she won a couple of Slams. It’s taken longer than she thought. But yeah, I would love for Serena to have another kid, because she and Alexis are completely and utterly devoted to Olympia, and they seem like the kind of people who SHOULD have a bunch of kids. But… I don’t know, is it too late?

Wouldn’t it be a trip if Serena won another Australian Open title while she was pregnant?

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A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Sep 17, 2019 at 6:05am PDT

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.