‘I Have Got To Move Upstairs’- Serena Williams Recounts Struggling Moment at Wimbledon That Propelled Her Career for Good

Serena Williams‘s successful life appears almost like a myth to her fans. Be it a film or book about her, her charm is irresistible. Now that Willaims is working on an exclusive docuseries with ESPN, the excitement has reached its peak. Attending a festival for her documentary’s premiere, Serena took her fans on a joyride of laughter by sharing why she “never looked back” at her old Wimbledon locker room.

At the Tribeca Festival 2024 for her docuseries In the Arena: Serena Williams‘ premiere, the legend sat for an interview and delighted the audience by bringing hilarious motivational goals that she set for her career at times. While the stories were truly interesting in the first place, they intrigued the audience more since they also brought some never-seen-before stories of the American former tennis legend.

“Wimbledon really has cool locker rooms. They have two locker rooms, the senior player locker rooms, then there was the lower player locker rooms and I was only at the lower player locker room one time, that’s it. And I was like, ‘I have got to move upstairs.’ And I never looked back,” revealed the former World No. 1.

Serena Williams’s locker room stories have a separate fan base. Since many of her rivals have spoken about her intimidating presence in the locker room, fans couldn’t help but dig out some more about it. For example, Williams’s rival Sorana Cirstea in La Fileu podcast in 2022 spoke about how Serena Williams’s presence made her opponents nervous since she never talked to them before matches.

Cirstea also added her experience with the World’s former number-one. “Serena [Williams] used to intimidate me badly, she was trained to do this thing. To intimidate you in the locker room. First of all, Serena wouldn’t talk to anyone in the locker room, to any other player,” 

The retired WTA pro’s story might seem really glamorous to many, however, she also had her share of challenging days. In her struggles, her locker room has been a prominent witness to her misery like she shared her victory with the place.

Serena Williams revealed how her locker room saw her “crying” at Wimbledon 2004

This former Olympic gold-medalist WTA star faced enough defeats but she never gave up on her skills. In the 2004 Wimbledon finals, Maria Sharapova defeated Williams, which impacted the latter deeply. Sharapova in her book Unstoppable: My Life So Far, wrote how she spotted Williams “bawling” in the locker room as Serena hated the Russian for being a “skinny kid.” Williams however refuted the claim saying that it was disappointing for her to come across such revelations.

“I think the book was 100% hearsay, at least all the stuff I read and the quotes that I read, which was a little bit disappointing. You know, I have cried in the locker room many times after a loss, and that’s what I have seen a lot of people do, think it’s normal. And I think if anything, it shows the passion and the desire and, you know, the will that you have to want to go out there and do the best,” said Williams.

Nevertheless, Serena Williams’s locker room story is too exciting for fans to miss! The ESPN+ documentary is out on the 10th of July and we’ll certainly be couch ready!