5 Remarkable Photos of Tennis Champ Serena Williams in Turks and Caicos

The three-time SI Swimsuit model was captured beachside for the 2017 issue.

Ananya Panchal | Dec 16, 2023

Serena Williams was photographed by Emmanuelle Hauguel in Turks and Caicos.

Emmanuelle Hauguel/Sports Illustrated

Serena Williams is, without a doubt, one of the best professional tennis players of all time. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion is also a four-time Olympic gold medalist. She retired last year, with an eloquent and moving self-penned Vogue essay, but she hasn’t slowed down in the slightest.

The mom of two, who shares her daughters, Olympia, 6, and 4-month-old Adira, with husband Alexis Ohanian, is the founder of S by Serena, Serena Ventures, and 926 Productions.

The 42-year-old, who made her SI Swimsuit debut in 2003, returned to the fold the following year. She posed for the magazine again in 2017, when she traveled to Turks and Caicos with photographer Emmanuelle Hauguel.

“Women need to be celebrated, and they need to embrace what you look like and not from the outside, but from the inside. So every time I step out there and [in] that swimsuit, I’m really feeling myself from the inside. I’m feeling my inner beauty and it’s going, and it’s showing in my poses and in everything. So everything that I’m feeling is coming from the inside, and I think that confidence is something that I would love for everyone to have,” she shared about what kind of impact she hoped her feature with the brand would have on women everywhere. “I want to come away with the fact that it’s O.K. to be comfortable in your body. I’ve never worn a thong before, and the second I stepped out there, I was comfortable. And what I would like for people to come away with is—first of all, I’m not a size two—and it’s O.K. to look good, to feel good. And I’m strong—it’s O.K. to look strong and to be sexy and to be a woman and to be unbreakable and to be all those things.”

Below are five inspiring and powerful photos from the athlete and mom’s photoshoot in Turks and Caicos.

Serena Williams — Emmanuelle Hauguel/Sports Illustrated

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Published Dec 16, 2023

ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a NYC-based Lifestyle & Trending News writer at SI Swimsuit. Before joining the Swim team, the Boston University Alum worked for culture & entertainment beats at Bustle, The San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. When Ananya is not writing or doom-scrolling on social media, she can be found playing sudoku, rewatching One Tree Hill or trying new restaurants. She's also a coffee and chocolate (separately) enthusiast.