"I literally wanted to cry" - Serena Williams reveals advice daughter Olympia gave her after Cincinnati Open loss

23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams revealed that her daughter, Olympia, helped her in calming down and settling her emotions during the US Open swing when she announced her retirement.

During her recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Williams revealed that Olympia gave her some encouragement after her first-round defeat to Emma Raducanu in Cincinnati.

"Absolutely. Apparently, she was saying like, 'Go, Momma, I'm so proud of you,' and I was like, 'What?'. So then she comes back after I had lost in Cincinnati, she came back and she's like, 'It's okay, Momma, you just have to do what you feel,' and I literally wanted to cry. It was like, 'Do what you feel. Do what your heart tells you.' It was the sweetest thing ever," she mentioned.

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"I just was worried I'd get distracted" - Serena Williams on not wanting her daughter in the stands

Serena Williams waves to the fans following her 2022 US Open exit.

Serena Williams revealed that she never wanted to have her daughter watch her matches from the stands in the stadium as she would get distracted while playing the match and worry about her wellbeing.

She mentioned that being a doting mother, she would be worried about her daughter not focusing on the match.

"I just was worried I'd get distracted because I would be like, 'Wait is she drinking? Is she doing this? She came to a match once, like super brief, and I was like, 'Oh my God, is she wearing sun cream?' It's nuts," she said.

Williams also spoke about how she would forget to serve and would get stressed out thinking about her daughter during the match.

"I would get stressed out and be like 'Wait a minute, oh my goodness I've got to serve. This makes no sense. So yeah, I've never really had her at matches until this summer actually," she added.

Serena Williams played her last professional match at the 2022 US Open on September 2nd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. She lost in the third round to Australian player Ajla Tomljanovic in three tight sets after upsetting the second seed in the second round.

Williams had earlier stated that she was eagerly looking forward to life post-retirement as she will, for the first time, have the freedom to pick and choose what she can pursue.

"Tennis was chosen for me and I loved that choice and I couldn't have made a better choice, right? So I was really happy that that happened. But now, for the first time in my entire life, I'm choosing to do something," she stated.