A match between Serena Williams and Coco Gauff may forever live in the dreams of tennis fans.
While speaking to PEOPLE at the 2024 Tribeca Festival premiere of her docuseries, In the Arena: Serena Williams, the 42-year-old tennis legend confessed that she doesn’t know if she will ever play against Gauff.
“I mean, let me ask my knees?” she quips at the Thursday, June 13 event.
The retired athlete says that while her “competitive craving” still exists, she’s focused on her outside ventures — including being a parent to daughters Adira, born in August 2023, and Olympia, 6½, with her husband, Alexis Ohanian.
“I have to be the best mom. I have to go to all of Olympia’s things at her school,” she says.
While speaking with PEOPLE for the 50th Anniversary cover story, the 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed that she’s slowly been able to reflect on her illustrious career with Olympia.
“I told her the other day that she actually was in my belly when I won a big tournament [the 2017 Australian Open], and she was surprised,” she said. “She’s at an age now where I can kind of open na up to her a little bit more and she can understand things more, whereas she didn’t really understand before.”
Although Williams has geared her focus off the court, Gauff, 20, has said she is someone she “looks up to” and considers a dream opponent.
“She’s my idol,” Gauff told ESPN in September 2023. “The only regret I’ll have for the rest of my life is not being able to play her. There were so many tournaments where if we won an extra round and didn’t lose, I would’ve played her. But I’m still happy to just be a product of her legacy and be out here for American tennis.”
