Serena Williams Talks Competition & Forgiveness With VOGUE [Photos]

Serena Williams is covering the April 2015 issue of VOGUE. Shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz, the 33-year-old tennis champ wears a Rag & Bone dress, with Tate diamond bracelets. In the issue, Serena opens up about maintaining a friendship with her competitor Caroline Wozniacki; why she’s used forgiveness to return to a tournament that she vowed to never return to and how she stays driven. Peep a few excerpts below.

On being friends and competitors simultaneously: 

Let’s just put an end to this myth that women players cannot be friends. We can!

Her disposition during the Grand Slam, which she won: 

I was really calm and positive. I knew I couldn’t get crazy on the court. I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis. There’s nothing missing, so all I have to do is go out there and do what I do best.

On Indian Wells, a tournament she had vowed to boycott permanently [when she was 19, the after largely white, largely senior audience booed her throughout an entire match]:

That’s when I realized I had to go back. I always talk about forgiveness, but I needed to actually show it. It was time to move on.

Her demeanor on the tennis court: 

On the court, I am fierce! I am mean and I am tough. I am completely opposite off the court. My confidence just isn’t the same. I wish I was more like I am on the court. Nobody would know that I am constantly crying or complaining.

On her body and staying fit:

Nowadays everybody goes to the gym. But when I won my first Grand Slam, I had never been. I hated my arms. I wanted them to look soft.

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