"She's literally tennis" - Alycia Parks on idolizing Serena Williams, views on King Richard movie and more

American youngster Alycia Parks, a self-described Serena Williams fan, has hit a bit of a purple patch in recent weeks — having lifted the biggest title of her career at the WTA 125K event in Andorra.

Taking time out between celebrating the most important win of her career, the 21-year-old — whose claim to fame so far has been her gutsy win over Maria Sakkari at this year's Ostrava Open — spoke to WTA about her journey so far as well as her reaction to watching the Venus and Serena Williams-inspired biopic King Richard.

Speaking of the film, Parks said there were a lot of scenes that reminded her of her own formative years — adding that it was weird how similar their early years looked. She then went on to recall her experience of sharing the court with Venus Williams and Serena Williams during the US Open practice session, before dubbing the latter tennis' "Greatest of all Time (GOAT)"

"When I watched King Richard, there were a lot of scenes [that felt familiar]. We kind of did it that way too. It was so weird because it was so similar," Alycia Parks said.

"It felt good at the US Open that I got to hit with both of them. Serena especially, because I look up to Serena. She's the GOAT of tennis. What can you do besides look up to her? She's literally tennis," she added.

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Alycia Parks did not play juniors akin to Venus and Serena Williams

Alycia Parks at the bett1open 2022.

Much like Venus Williams and Serena Williams, Alycia Parks and Mikayla Parks did not play a lot of junior-level tournaments. Noting the similarities, the former said she battled a lot of injuries, especially a recurrent knee problem, and skipped playing on the junior tour to prevent injuries.

Shifting her focus to sharing a positive on-court rivalry with her sister, Alycia said that they push each other to be better. She added that the competitiveness has since translated into a tenacious on-court attitude for her.

"We didn't do the junior route because at the time, I was growing throughout juniors. I would always have knee problems and my dad wanted to prevent injuries. Just train and get ready for the pros. So that's what we did and here I am now," she said.

"My sister also played, so we pushed each other. We didn't go based off the competition that was out there because we were always competing with each other. When you have a sister that you always want to beat and vice versa, I think that puts you in a different element. So when I got on tour and the pros, [the level] wasn't really a surprise," she added.