Tennis news - Serena Williams: social distancing is making me feel crazy

The 38-year-old American athlete took to TikTok to talk over her feelings since the start of her self-isolation. She plans to spend six weeks at home in order to protect herself, but is combatting anxiety.

Serena Williams has opened up about how difficult she is finding social distancing.

Williams said: “I wanted to take a minute and talk about my experience with corona. It started out with me feeling like: ‘Oh it can’t really affect me.’ 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.’ And then one cancellation led to another and then led to another and led to all this anxiety that I’m feeling.

“Now I’ve been social distancing for actually a really long time, for probably two weeks now, and every little thing makes me crazy. And by anxiety I mean I’m just on edge. Any time anyone sneezes around me or coughs I get crazy. I don’t hang out with anyone, and 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 I’m really under a ton of stress.”

The tennis authorities, the ATP and WTA this week confirmed that there will be no tournament tennis played until June at the earliest.