(Photo credit: Serena Williams Instagram)
“Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years…” are the first words from LL Cool J’s legendary comeback song, Mama Said Knock You Out.
Those words and that song are could be the theme song for tennis superstar Serena Williams after her recent win. After all, every superhero needs their theme music.
In her first Grand Slam match in nearly 16 months, Williams defeated Kristyna Pliskova, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in the first round of the French Open on Tuesday.
Much has changed in Williams’s life since she last played on one of the game’s biggest stages, winning the 2017 Australian Open.
She is now married and the mother of an infant daughter. Ranked No. 1 when she left the game, now she’s slowly building back up her rank as an unseeded player after playing only four singles matches on tour this season.
(Photo credit: WTA Photography)
And she has been doing it all while wearing a stylish black lycra bodysuit that fit her like a sleek, sexy superhero.
“I call it like my Wakanda-inspired catsuit,” Williams said, in a reference to the blockbuster movie Black Panther. Yet this was not a purely sartorial decision, it was for her health too.
Tennis fans and naysayers alike noticed that in just about every photograph taken since Williams had started training again, she was wearing tight leggings. Some had privately speculated that she might be covering up knee problems, but Williams it wasn’t that at all.
“I had a lot of problems with my blood clots,” she said. “God, I don’t know how many I have had in the past 12 months. So there is definitely a little functionality to it. I have been wearing pants, in general, a lot when I play so I can keep the blood circulation going. It’s a fun suit, but it’s also functional so I can be able to play without any problems.”
If you remember, Williams has a history of blood clots. Back in 2011, she spent nearly 12 months incapacitated by a cut to her foot sustained last July and by a pulmonary embolism. She revealed that the clot in her lung had been a life-threatening condition. “I was on my death bed at one point – quite literally. I’ve had a serious illness but at first I didn’t appreciate that,” she said.
(Photo credit: Associated Press/WP)
One of the more recently publicized blood clots was when she started to have trouble breathing while recovering from her C-section in 2017. She thought she was having another blood clot, and told the medical staff she needed a CT scan and treatment for blood clots. Her doctors initially did not honor her request, and instead performed an ultrasound on her legs, Williams told Vogue. But eventually, they did give her a CT scan, which indeed showed that she had several blood clots in her lungs, known as pulmonary embolisms, according to Vogue.
Williams was put on a life-saving blood-thinner medication, but this had the side effect of preventing her surgical C-section wound from healing properly. Her surgical wound reopened, and doctors performed another surgery in which they found a hematoma, or a mass of clotted blood, in her abdomen. She needed another operation to insert a filter into a major vein to prevent more clots, Vogue said.
Compression stockings or outfits like Serena’s are specially designed to apply pressure to your lower legs, helping…
(Photo credit: Serena Williams Instagram)
“Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years…” are the first words from LL Cool J’s legendary comeback song, Mama Said Knock You Out.
Those words and that song are could be the theme song for tennis superstar Serena Williams after her recent win. After all, every superhero needs their theme music.
In her first Grand Slam match in nearly 16 months, Williams defeated Kristyna Pliskova, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in the first round of the French Open on Tuesday.
Much has changed in Williams’s life since she last played on one of the game’s biggest stages, winning the 2017 Australian Open.
She is now married and the mother of an infant daughter. Ranked No. 1 when she left the game, now she’s slowly building back up her rank as an unseeded player after playing only four singles matches on tour this season.
(Photo credit: WTA Photography)
And she has been doing it all while wearing a stylish black lycra bodysuit that fit her like a sleek, sexy superhero.
“I call it like my Wakanda-inspired catsuit,” Williams said, in a reference to the blockbuster movie Black Panther. Yet this was not a purely sartorial decision, it was for her health too.
Tennis fans and naysayers alike noticed that in just about every photograph taken since Williams had started training again, she was wearing tight leggings. Some had privately speculated that she might be covering up knee problems, but Williams it wasn’t that at all.
“I had a lot of problems with my blood clots,” she said. “God, I don’t know how many I have had in the past 12 months. So there is definitely a little functionality to it. I have been wearing pants, in general, a lot when I play so I can keep the blood circulation going. It’s a fun suit, but it’s also functional so I can be able to play without any problems.”
If you remember, Williams has a history of blood clots. Back in 2011, she spent nearly 12 months incapacitated by a cut to her foot sustained last July and by a pulmonary embolism. She revealed that the clot in her lung had been a life-threatening condition. “I was on my death bed at one point – quite literally. I’ve had a serious illness but at first I didn’t appreciate that,” she said.
(Photo credit: Associated Press/WP)
One of the more recently publicized blood clots was when she started to have trouble breathing while recovering from her C-section in 2017. She thought she was having another blood clot, and told the medical staff she needed a CT scan and treatment for blood clots. Her doctors initially did not honor her request, and instead performed an ultrasound on her legs, Williams told Vogue. But eventually, they did give her a CT scan, which indeed showed that she had several blood clots in her lungs, known as pulmonary embolisms, according to Vogue.
Williams was put on a life-saving blood-thinner medication, but this had the side effect of preventing her surgical C-section wound from healing properly. Her surgical wound reopened, and doctors performed another surgery in which they found a hematoma, or a mass of clotted blood, in her abdomen. She needed another operation to insert a filter into a major vein to prevent more clots, Vogue said.
Compression stockings or outfits like Serena’s are specially designed to apply pressure to your lower legs, helping…