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‘Every little thing makes me crazy’ – Self-isolating Serena Williams lifts lid on coronavirus anxiety


Serena Williams has opened up on her extreme coronavirus ‘anxiety’ as the realities of social distancing hit the 23-time Grand Slam winner.

Williams was one of the first tennis stars to reveal her plans to deal with the global coronavirus outbreak, confirming she planned at least six weeks of self-isolation at home with her family.

However, in an update posted of TikTok, she says the everyday anxiety is starting to really affect her.

“It started out with me feeling like ‘oh it (coronavirus) can’t really affect me’,” Williams said.

“And then suddenly Indian Wells was cancelled and I was like ‘oh ok that’s weird but I have a little time off and I’m going to enjoy that time off’.

“One cancellation led to another and another and then all this anxiety that I’m feeling.

“Now I’ve been social distancing for a really long time, like two weeks, and now every little thing makes me crazy.

“And by anxiety I mean I’m just on edge every time anyone sneezes around me or coughs. It’s crazy.

“I don’t hang out with anyone so when I say anyone I mean, my daughter.

“She coughed, I got angry and gave her a side-eye. I gave her that ‘angry Serena’ and then I got sad.

“I was like ‘is she ok? Is there something wrong with my daughter? Is there anything I can do?’ I just don’t know what to do, so instead of being relaxed and I’m really under a ton of stress.

“I never expected to be relaxed but it is what it is. We’ll get through this, we have to and I just wanted to update you on what I was doing.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.