CNN interviewed Serena Williams when she was 9. Here’s what she said when she was 8 years old
Serena Williams sat down with CNN’s Piers and Anderson Cooper on Wednesday — shortly after she received an award from the US Women’s Sports Foundation. When CNN’s Piers Morgan asked Williams what was going on in her life, the 13-time Grand Slam singles tournament champion, 37, made it clear that tennis was foremost in her life.
“I’m at this point in my life when I really feel like I’m living to play tennis,” she said. “There’s not much other things I feel like I need to do right now besides play tennis. So basically every day, when I go to the gym, it’s more of a running workout. It’s a long, slow walk. It’s not a running workout. Maybe you could call it a walking workout when you have to run.”
On her career:
“I don’t know if there’s a label or a story that applies to me. I’m a pretty shy person. I have a private life. I can give you an example of when I was in London, I was at the US Open and there’s a group of us that were walking. And one of the players asked me to come and check on her. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll come up.’ And when I got there, I was like, ‘Oh, she’s just sitting down.’ And so I kind of just like took a seat and I was like, ‘Hi, how are you doing? How’s your day been? How’s your life?’ And she was like, ‘This is the best day ever. The weather is so nice, the food is so sweet, the people are so nice, I’m just sitting here. I’m so happy.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, good, let’s chat a little bit.’ And then she turns around and she turns around