From Serena Williams shading Roger Federer to worrying over Venus Williams 'regret': Frances Tiafoe & Hailey Baptiste share Williams sisters stories

Frances Tiafoe and Hailey Baptiste recently shared their anecdotes of playing with Serena Williams and Venus Williams in their careers. The two are busy gearing up and competing in their respective ongoing hard-court swings.

Tiafoe is all set to compete at the mixed doubles tournament of the US Open with Madison Keys as her partner, and they will be squaring off against Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud in the first round on August 19 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. On the other hand, Baptiste is currently competing at the Tennis in the Land tournament, where she recently won the first round against Elena-Gabriela Ruse and will now square off against Anastasia Zakharova.

Amid their ongoing shenanigans, both the players, Tiafoe and Baptiste, sat for a conversation with The Tennis Gazette, where they discussed their experiences of playing alongside the Williams sisters. Recalling his experience of teaming up with Serena Williams during the 2019 Hopman Cup, where they competed against Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic, the American revealed Serena's mindset.

Talking about how she shaded Federer during the showdown, he said:

"The mindset they have, Serena is like, Federer is acing her and she’s like, ‘Well I’ve got 23 and he’s got 20, he’s not as good as me’. I’m like…I was like, wait, here comes ace, ace and ace. She’s like ‘I don’t know how he’s acing me, he’s not better than me’. And I’m like we going to say no? Like, no he’s not. Are you going to say no? But like the mindset yo, it’s crazy. Losing with them, that killed me," said Frances Tiafoe.

Baptiste, on the other hand, opened up about her experience of teaming up with Venus at the Citi Open this year. Revealing how nervous she was to play with her, she said:

"I mean I would say, probably this year’s Citi Open, playing doubles with Venus. It was insane. From the moment I heard that we were going to play and it was set up, I was like, that’s all I could think about. I was like, ‘I’m about to play with a legend’.... No, literally every ball I miss, I’m like ‘she regrets playing with me’," said Baptiste.

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When Frances Tiafoe opened up about receiving a pep talk from Serena Williams before his fourth-round win at the US Open

In the 2024 US Open, Frances Tiafoe locked horns with Alexei Popyrin in the fourth round, where he produced a dominant display of his skills and claimed a 6-4, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3 win over his opponent. Ahead of this clash, the American received a pep talk from the legend, Serena Williams, and he opened up about it in the tournament's press conference.

Stating how cool it was to talk to her before the match, he said that she motivated him to do better in the match.

"It was really cool to have her want to talk to me before my match and really say she wants me to do this thing that I'm capable of doing. Coming from her, it's just so loud. I don't think any of it will hit me like that if anybody else said it to me," said Frances Tiafoe [8:20].

Along with this, Frances Tiafoe also revealed that he was feeling nervous while talking to her and responding to simple questions that she asked him ahead of the match.