Serena Williams was responding to emails about her clothing line and reorganising her schedule to spend time with her one-year-old daughter shortly before beating Eugenie Bouchard 6-2 6-2 in the Australian Open second round on Thursday.
Williams, dubbed the Australian Open favourite by Bouchard shortly after the match, is vying for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, and will play 18-year-old Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the third round.
The 37-year-old said that, while life was much more demanding than her earlier years on the tour, it wasn’t anything “special”.
“I’m just doing what I feel like working parents do,” said Williams, who was pregnant when she was last at the Australian Open in 2017, which she won.
“They make it work. I’m just like literally everyone else.”
Playing at a level that mocks her sixteenth seeding, the world’s highest paid female athlete started fast in her second round match, winning the first three games.
That wasn’t the only ominous sign for her Canadian opponent, a former Wimbledon finalist who has been trying to retrieve her stellar form of five years ago. Read more