Serena Williams is serving fresh face glam and glorious hair for Vogue’s annual Shape Issue. In a blue Rag & Bone sheath dress the tennis star posed fiercely for her second Vogue cover, but this is the first time she’s on the cover alone. Inside she talks fitness, friendship, and fitness
Fitness:
Nowadays everybody goes to the gym. But when I won my first Grand Slam, I had never been.” Even then, however, she was ambivalent about her naturally muscular physique, refusing to lift weights lest her arms get bigger. “I hated my arms,” she remembers. “I wanted them to look soft.” To this day, she uses TheraBands instead of weights to avoid overdeveloping her muscles.
Forgiveness:
After being booed by a majority white crowd at the Indian Wells, a competition nearly 14 yeas ago, Serena finally returned . She said it was after reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, helped her make the decision to return. “That’s when I realized I had to go back,” Williams said. “I always talk about forgiveness, but I needed to actually show it.”
Friendship :
Despite being fierce rivals, Serena is best friends with Caroline Wozniacki. It was when Caroline then fiancé, Rory McIlroy suddenly broke off their engagement that Serena showed the broken hearted Caroline what friends are really for.
My phone was going crazy,” Wozniacki, who also appears in the issue, recalled. “But I didn’t want to talk to anyone.” A supportive Williams refused to let Wozniacki sink into a depression. “I kept calling,” Williams said.
Luckily, her persistence paid off. “First she texted, ‘If you don’t pick up, I am going to fly to Monaco.’ And then, ‘If you don’t answer the door, I am going to knock it down,'” Wozniacki remembered. “So I thought, ok, I better answer the phone. And I am so glad I did.”
Ummmmmm yes, can we say banging body? Serena was the perfect choice for VOGUE’s fitness cover. Simply amazing! Grab Serena’s VOGUE cover on newsstands now.
