Serena Williams Just Won Her First Grand Slam Match Since Having Her Baby, Feels “Like a Superhero”
Don’t call it a comeback: Serena Williams—the “G.M.O.A.T.”—won her first Grand Slam match since giving birth to her daughter, Olympia, defeating Kristyna Pliskova on Tuesday in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 6-4, at the French Open. It was Williams’s first appearance in a Grand Slam match since she won the 2017 Australian Open while in the early stages of her pregnancy. She is scheduled to return on Thursday, to play against Australian Ashleigh Barty.
Williams, whose complicated pregnancy, new parenthood, and strenuous return to fighting form has been detailed on a critically lauded HBO docuseries, wore a black Nike bodysuit for the match, a choice she said made her feel like “a warrior . . . a warrior princess kind of, [a] queen from Wakanda.” She leaned into the superhero idea for her fellow moms, namely “all the moms out there that had a tough pregnancy and have to come back and try to be fierce, in the middle of everything. That’s what this represents. You can’t beat a catsuit, right?” For the record, we called it once we saw her updo.
