“Serena Williams is a Rarity, She’s Really Special” – Alison Riske

The reigning Wimbledon quarterfinalist Alison Riske had a decent start of the 2020 season. The American reached the pre-quarterfinals of Australian Open and lost to the top-seed and crowd’s favorite Ashleigh Barty in three sets.

The 29-year-old tennis player Riske tied a knot with Stephan Amritraj last year. And now she talks about starting a family. She really looks up to her compatriot Serena Williams, who’s swinging her tennis racquets hard and simultaneously pays 100 percent attention to her daughter, Alexis Olympia. 

“I definitely think it’s a thing now, players are lasting a little bit longer. Again, Serena is a rarity, she’s really special. It’s hard to compare people to that standard. But I do think that at 34-35, players are still able to produce good tennis,” Alison Riske told Times of India.

Recently Williams and Riske shared tennis courts during the Fed Cup 2020 ties against Latvia in the USA.

Alison Riske on motherhood

Alison drives motivation to excel on the WTA circuit from the 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams. But at the same time, Riske doesn’t see herself playing professional tennis after becoming a mother.

“I definitely don’t see myself stopping and having a kid and then coming back. Stephen and I actually talked about that a bit, we were together on trying to take the career to a point where I feel like I’m satisfied and now I’m ready to have a family,” Riske added.

“And then just call it a day. I think we’re going to give it a little bit more time and play for as long as I can. It’s really cool that he’s in agreement with that.”

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World Number 19 Alison Riske recorded her career-best season last year. A deep run into the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and losing to Serena Williams in a rollercoaster match bolstered her WTA season 2019.

That day in the lawns of SW19, she had the chance to pull off a big upset, but eventually, Serena’s overwhelming grit was the winner under the English sky. 

Before the grass-court major Riske had won the second title of her career. She triumphed at Libema Open over the then-World Number four Kiki Bertens.