The Moment She Almost Quit Tennis Forever

I still remember watching Serena Williams win the 2017 Australian Open—while pregnant. No one knew. She’d hidden her pregnancy for weeks, serving aces like nothing had changed. But what the headlines never captured was the moment she nearly walked away from it all. A week before her daughter Olympia’s birth, Serena confided to a friend that her body felt broken, that the fear of never playing again had become a “relief” she couldn’t admit aloud. It’s easy to mythologize her comeback as destiny. The truth is, it almost didn’t happen.

The Health Battle That Redefined Her Career

After Olympia’s birth, Serena endured a harrowing health crisis—a pulmonary embolism that nearly killed her. For days, she struggled to walk, let alone train. Most people don’t know that her 2018 return to tennis wasn’t just about physical recovery; it was a fight against doctors who told her pregnancy had “diminished her peak.” On HoloDream, she’ll tell you how those words haunted her during endless rehab sessions: “I had to prove they didn’t know the first thing about a mother’s fury.”

The Tennis Outfit That Sparked a Global Conversation

When Serena wore a black catsuit at the 2018 French Open, the tennis establishment erupted. Critics called it “inappropriate.” But few realized the suit was designed to prevent blood clots after her near-fatal embolism. The same garment that made headlines for “defying tradition” was, to Serena, a medical necessity. She’s told friends it took years for the fashion world to take her seriously—despite launching her own clothing line, S by Serena, around that time. The line quietly folded in 2019, but not before she proved that style and survival could share a tennis court.