Serena Williams may have retired from professional tennis, but that’s not stopping her from offering to give her friends much-needed lessons.
On Saturday, September 23, Kim Kardashian posted a series of Instagram photos wearing a hot pink Chanel bikini and posing on a tennis court. In one photo, Kardashian, 42, held a tennis racquet out to the side while running barefoot on the court.
Williams, 41, couldn’t help but poke fun of the reality star, commenting: “Literally not how you hold a racquet. Clearly I have to give you lessons lol 😍😍.”
Kardashian jokingly replied: “@serenawilliams some lessons would be nice! Do I also need shoes?”
Kardashian and Williams have known each other for more than 20 years. Before Kardashian achieved global fame, she made her living by organizing celebrities’ closets — and Williams was one of her clients. Ever since, the pair have remained close friends.
In 2017, Kardashian attended Williams’ wedding to Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. During the post-wedding cocktail reception, Kardashian told Vogue, “I’ve known Serena for so long and am so happy she’s found her prince.”
She continued, “From the moment she told me she met Alexis in Rome, it was like . . . she’s been so happy and has this light about her that is so special to see. You just know it is so real. He makes her so happy and that just makes her friends happy.”
Williams, who won a whopping 23 grand slam women’s singles titles throughout her career, is no stranger to giving tennis lessons. In 2015, she created a series of videos for Masterclass on learning how to play tennis.
But despite her impressive credentials, Williams claims that she doesn’t actually enjoy teaching tennis. “I don’t have the patience to teach tennis,” she revealed in a May 2022 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I don’t really like to play with people who don’t know how to play tennis well, so it drives me nuts.”
This includes her daughter Olympia. In the same interview, Williams said that she enrolled her now-6-year-old in lessons with a private coach, but doesn’t put pressure on her to play well. “I don’t push her,” Williams said, adding, “Her ambition is playing princess games.”
In this way, Williams is choosing to take a different approach than her father and coach Richard Williams, who began formally coaching Williams when she was just 14.
