WATCH: Serena Williams gets all pumped up teaching daughter Adira iconic 'come on' call
Serena Williams shared adorable footage teaching her youngest daughter, Adira, the tennis icon's famous on-court call to arms. The 23-time Grand Slam champion, arguably the greatest women's player in tennis history, was famous for egging herself on at times of duress in matches by shouting, "Serena, come on!"
Williams dominated women's tennis for over two decades after her debut in 1995. Her 23 majors is a record for the Open Era, and she was World No. 1 for 319 weeks, the third most in history. Together with sister Venus, who pocketed seven majors in her own right, the siblings represented tennis on the world stage at the end of the last century and the beginning of this.
Serena married Reddit co-founder and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian in 2017, and the couple has two daughters, Olympia, 7, and one-year-old Adira. On Friday, Serena shared an Instagram video of her playing with Adira, and teaching the toddler her call-to-arms, captioning the post:
"Teaching @adiraohanian the "Serena Come On". What do you think?"
Serena Williams and Ohanian often post on social media about their daughters. Williams has been known to include them in fashion shoots for her various brand promotions, and Ohanian is often seen with the girls at sports tournaments and social events.
Serena Williams' on-court shouts often indicated that she was "in the zone"
"Serena, come on" was not Williams's only on-court exhortation. She was also known to shout "Stay in there" and "You can do it" at stressful moments in matches.
In 2018, in an interview with GQ magazine, former World No. 1 and four-time major champion Naomi Osaka talked about Serena Williams' famous exclamation after beating Williams in the first round at the 2018 Miami Open. Osaka suggested that once she heard the great champion use it, she knew she was in for a hard match. She said:
“Sometimes she plays matches where she doesn’t say ‘come on’ at all. And that’s a little bit sad, because it’s like, Do you think she’s trying? I just wanted her to say ‘come on’ once, because then I knew maybe she would be trying a little bit. So once I heard the first ‘come on,’ I was like, Yeah!”
Some observers felt that Serena Williams' on-court demeanor could be off-putting to opponents. Osaka disagreed, saying that the tennis icon was simply being true to herself:
“She’s just being real. She’s just being herself, and I think that that’s very refreshing to a lot of people. A lot of people in this world, sadly, in order not only to protect themselves but not to let people get close to them, they start faking emotions.”
Little Adira is too young to pick up a tennis racquet. Elder daughter Olympia has shown early signs of athletic prowess and, as a golfer, but as yet shows no inclination to follow in her famous mum's footsteps as a tennis player.