Pregnant Serena Williams Bares All For Vanity Fair Cover

by Tom Gainey | June 27th, 2017, 6:59 pm
  • 22 Comments

Taking the lead from Demi Moore, Serena Williams has bared all for the cover of the latest Vanity Fair issue. The 35-year-old tennis star is set to get give birth to her first child in early September.

In the issue, Serena reveals the moment she found out she pregant just days before the start of the Australian Open.


She felt a little different physically. She had unexpectedly thrown up at one point and her breasts had enlarged. She thought it might be hormonal. But her friend Jessica Steindorff immediately suspected something else and suggested a pregnancy test. Serena thought it was ludicrous.

Jessica worked on her for two days until Serena relented, and so Jessica went to a pharmacy and bought a pregnancy kit.

That Friday, as Serena was doing her hair and makeup for an event sponsored by the lingerie company Berlei, where she is a spokesperson for its line of sports bras, she took the test in the bathroom. “I put it down. I went back to finishing hair and makeup, was laughing, talking. I was getting the styling done. An hour and a half later, I went back to the bathroom and I totally forgot about it because it was impossible for me. . . . So I went back to get dressed and I went back in the bathroom and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that test.’ ”

Jessica shrieked in delight at the results. Serena, as she put it, “did a double take and my heart dropped. Like literally it dropped.

“Oh my God, this can’t be—I’ve got to play a tournament,” said Serena. “How am I going to play the Australian Open? I had planned on winning Wimbledon this year.”

You can read the full story here.


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22 Comments for Pregnant Serena Williams Bares All For Vanity Fair Cover

Giles Says:

Boy! She really has guts!


FedExpress Says:

Just why?


Willow Says:

Why not ?, whats good enough for Demi Moore or Kim Kardashian, is surely good enough for Serena ? ….


Berghain Says:

I agree “just why”. Narzissmus if u ask me.

No offence Willow but who gives a shi* about Kim Kardashian.


Willow Says:

Berghain true, but why make a issue about it one way or the other, if they wish to do it let them get on with it their lives ….


Willow Says:

And by the way i cant stand Kim Kardashian either ….


Wog Boy Says:

What a BS story about her staying pregnant and not knowing!
In this century If you want to stay pregnant then you stay pregnant, if you don’t want to stay pregnant then you use protection of any kind you normally do when you have a sex, if she hasn’t used protection of any kind and went full on what else could have happened, she didn’t stay pregnant accidentally!
Is she playing dumb or is she really dumb or she thinks the others are dumb?

PS
She should’ve have never done this photo.


James Says:

She IS the best female tennis player, perhaps the best female tennis player of all time. McEnroe unnecessarily went too far – shouldn’t have said she would be ranked 700 on the mens circuit. That’s a stupid way to make your right statement feel wrong to many. And there is no evidence of that.

There’s no doubt that Serena cannot beat the top men’s players. Absolutely none. What would be her ranking if she were playing the mens circuit? Well, hard to say. I doubt if she could beat any top 50 player. If it was best of 5, perhaps hard to beat a top 100 player. Lower than that – unless we see a mixed singles circuit, its all speculation. 700? that seems a bit harsh. I think on her day she COULD beat a male player ranked 200 in best of 3.

Same with the photo.


Willow Says:

When you dont get monthly visits, then logic would suggest that your either up the duff, or something else is wrong, but its not rocket science ….


J-Kath Says:

Willow:

What about when you’re wearing a bikini in the middle of a cold winter and you are still feeling boiling hot ….while everybody else is wearing a fur coat and several scarves?
It’s either called the menopause or “Be naughty without Consequences”.


Willow Says:

J-Kath exactly ….


gonzalowski Says:

:)) I’ll drink to that!


Willow Says:

Gonzalowski lol, its really not much fun being a woman at times, having said that men also go through their fair share of shit, so its not much fun being a human being at times either :-) ….


gonzalowski Says:

:) yes, but this “be naughty without consequences” can be a wonderful thing, I know ;)


Willow Says:

I Also look forward to being naughty without consequences whenever that is lol ….


Willow Says:

I Just didnt see the big deal one way or the other about this to be honest, Wozniacki, Bouchard, Zvonareva, Hantuchova all did naked photo shoots for SI, and people commented on how hot they looked, Isner, Tsonga, Berdych, Stan for the men, whats the difference ?….


Willow Says:

And moderation why , strange how some of the other stuff you let through without the blink of an eye TX, what gives ? *ROLLS EYES * ….


gonzalowski Says:

well said willow!


Willow Says:

Im all for equality Gonzolowski :-) ….


Berghain Says:

@james
“700? that seems a bit harsh. I think on her day she COULD beat a male player ranked 200 in best of 3.”

I had to laugh when I read that.

Read this…
Its rather long but it explains it well. Search Quora if you want the source.

Lon Shapiro, professional tennis coach
No, it is not true that Serena Williams could play at the level of the #700 ranked player in the ATP rankings. She would struggle to play at the college level.

These kind of questions are about as dumb as asking if the best woman sprinter or basketball player in the world could make the team at a D1 university, because the answer is so obvious.

I say these questions are dumb because tennis is the only sport where people are so concerned with maintaining the fallacy that women could play competitively with men, as if this would somehow reduce the value of their sport.

In the Olympics, we cheer just as much for the women’s events as we do for the men’s events. The US Women’s soccer team is more successful and popular than the men’s team (unfortunately, they are forced to play under horrible conditions and get paid a fraction of what the men earn). And women golfers have no problems earning millions of dollars, regardless of whether they could make the cut in men’s tournaments.

Your question refers to the whole Serena-McEnroe controversy, which started, in part, because the 58-year-old McEnroe thought he could still be ranked 1200 on the ATP rankings (more about that at the end). And since the question arises once again, let’s look at all the ways we can describe how big the gap is between the men’s and women’s game.

First, we have all the anecdotal references, such as Sherin Dehmoubed’s comparison between himself (maybe top 100 nationally in boys 16s) and Coco Vandeweigh (ranked as high as #19, but currently ranked #40 on the WTA):

The famous story of #200 Karsten Brasch easily beating Serena and Venus while smoking during changeovers.
Battle of the Sexes matches where Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court and allegedly tanked against Billie Jean King.
Chris Evert acknowledging that her brother John (#1 at a non-powerhouse D1 college) could beat her 6–0, 6–0.

Secondly, there are quantitative references, such at the Universal Tennis Rating, where the top men are rated at level 16, while Serena is rated at 13, which corresponds to a mid-level male college player.

Third, there are the differences players and coaches can see on the court, which I described in more detail here: Lon Shapiro’s answer to If Federer and Serena Williams agreed to play a match, what rules would need to be introduced in order to make the match competitive?

Another good article is Laurence Shanet’s answer to Which ranking should a male tennis player be to lose with the #1 female player?

The simplest thing to understand is that Serena has the greatest serve in woman’s tennis history, but against D1 men’s players she has no advantage, because they face serves just as good as hers or better in almost every match they play. Instead of having a huge advantage like she does over every WTA player, she might hit some aces and forces some errors with good first serves, but her male opponents would return a lot of her first serves and get into a rally, while her second serve would be punished unmercifully.

On the other hand, Serena would be forced to return serves as good or better than hers (especially kick serves coming from players who are over 5′9″), which would put her at a huge disadvantage starting every point.

So instead of winning or having control of 60–75% of the points, like she does against the women, she might only have control of 20–25% of the points against the men (the effect of her best first serves).

The next part is crucial: court coverage and the ability to hit a solid return while running, stretching or changing direction. Against the women, Serena only has to hit one or two powerful shots off the ground and that’s good enough to either force a weak return or hit a winner. Against the men, most of Serena’s “winners” are nothing more than rally balls. So not only will they return more shots, they will be in position to take any shot she hits less than optimally and attack her.

With her relative lack of mobility (even when she was at her physical peak), she could not stay in rallies where she is forced to run wide and then cover the other corner of the court.

Finally, if you look at her technique, she takes a big wind up on her ground strokes. If the ball is deep, she is usually forced to back up to have enough time to set up for her shots. The men learn how to deal with pace as juniors, so their stroke preparation is quicker and more compact. In addition, they have to learn to become comfortable hitting balls on the rise if they want to move forward into the court to take time away from their opponent.

All of these factors, plus Serena’s own lack of consistency would make it difficult for her to win games, let alone sets against top college players.

The last thing to consider is McEnroe’s delusional comment about still playing at an ATP level. McEnroe tried to show Serena respect by saying she could play at the level of the #700 ATP ranked player, since he still believes he could play at 1200.

But if you watch him play on the Power Shares Series tour, you’ll notice that his movement and ground stokes are suspect. If he hits a good serve and gets a ball close to him, he can still hit a good shot. But if his opponent hits one big shot out of his immediate reach, he either won’t touch the ball, or make a desperate attempt to hit a winner because he knows he can’t get back in the court to hit the next ball.

These senior events are one-day tournaments where the players play a one set semi final followed by a one set final. As a 58-year-old, McEnroe does not have the stamina to play best of three sets every day, as he would need to do if he wanted to could earn an ATP ranking.

There’s a reason younger players like Blake, Courier and Roddick (who is one year younger than Federer) play their exhibitions and don’t say a word about how they would do on the tour. While they might be competitive for one set, they know they couldn’t take the physical grind of playing three sets and then coming back to play the next day.

Thomas Muster, a former #1 in the world, played his last tour events in 2011, at the age of 44. He won exactly one set in three matches. That should be a pretty good indication of how tough it is to compete as players get older.

The only advantage McEnroe or Serena would have over the young players would be mental. The novelty of playing a living legend would cause a lot of players to get tight, especially if they were on TV for the first time in their lives. But if McEnroe or Serena started playing Futures events on a weekly basis, their mystique would wear off, and all their physical shortcomings would be exploited.

The bottom line is sports is entertainment. So as long as the women play exciting matches, we should stop wasting time arguing about these comparisons.


gonzalowski Says:

interesting, Berghain, agree with all this.
There’s a film (I don’t remember the name) in which a character says he prefers watching female basketball than boys’ because he finds it sheerer about tactics, and because girls play to death.


Berghain Says:

@gonzalowski
Ppl seem to forget how big of a role the serve has helped Serena in her career. Take that away… and well, we know the answer.

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