Serena Williams is one of the biggest names in American tennis, having won 23 singles Grand Slam titles. She ruled women’s tennis for more than two decades thanks to her disciplined career before “evolving away” from the WTA Tour. Recently, she shared an incident involving her daughter, in which she taught her a lesson.
Serena Williams Shares Emotional Incident Involving Her Daughter
The American is known for her illustrious career, spanning from 1997 to 2022, during which she won 73 singles titles, including 23 Majors. She is also a successful doubles player, having completed a career Golden Slam in both women’s singles and doubles. Notably, such accomplishments require too much effort, consistency, and discipline, which Williams had.
After stepping away from the sport, she focused on her family and her duties as a mother. She has two daughters with her husband Alexis Ohanian, namely, Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, and shares multiple beautiful moments with them on social media. Recently, she shared an incident where she tried to instill the same discipline in her daughters, which ended in tears.
“I told my daughter to go to bed. She did not therefore, she missed out on her sleep over. She cried. But what she did not know is I cried harder. I hate when she cries. 💔 Discipline sucks. But sometimes it’s important.”
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This emotional incident shows that despite her daughters’ young age, Williams wants them to learn discipline and face the consequences. She herself acknowledged that discipline could be difficult at times, as she trained for years to achieve elite performance and had to make her sacrifices in the process. But when she said, “Sometimes it’s important,” she showed that it is what distinguishes ordinary from extraordinary.
Williams often posts sweet mother-daughter exchanges, which are admired by the entire tennis world. From fun family outings to dress-ups to fun engagement on a tennis court, the American’s social media is filled with such content, showing how much she likes her life away from the competition.
However, news of Williams’ return to the professional tour surfaced in late 2025 after her name appeared on the anti-doping testing pool list. Fans were excited to see one of the greatest women’s players of all time return to the tennis courts, given that her older sister is an active WTA player and still competing.
To silence all such conversations, Williams posted on social media that she is not returning, though there have been signs that suggest otherwise. She was seen practicing on the court multiple times, working on her fitness, and even practicing with American star Alycia Parks.
As of now, there is no solid information about when Williams will return to court, if she decides to. Her third-round loss at the 2022 US Open against Australian Ajla Tomljanović remains her last professional match, and fans are eager for the American legend to return to competition before she hangs up the racket for good.
