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Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian ’s daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. already has a verified Instagram profile with over 606 thousand followers. The account is run by her “mama” and “papa” and documents her adventures at the beach, doing art, or hitting the courts with mom. On Thursday they uploaded an adorably sassy photo of Ohanion holding a menu while they enjoy lunch together in Paris. Ohanion is throwing some obvious faces of discontent and they captioned the photo, “Vous n‘avez pas de ketchup???” which translates to “you don’t have ketchup???”
While everyone should understand the importance of ketchup, it was the caption in French that reminded people that Ohanian is on her way to becoming a polyglot. Ohanian is mama’s mini-mi and Williams uploaded the duo wearing matching pajamas and doing their morning skin care routine together. So naturally, she got the ability to learn several languages from mama!
Williams is fluent in English and French and also speaks Italian. She explained what her motivation was to learn French in her teens during an interview with The Fader, not surprisingly, it was related to tennis. “One of the reasons I learned French was I wanted to win the French Open, and I wanted to speak French when I won,” she explained. “The second was because in most African countries, the main language outside of their local language is French or English. So I figured: I know English, maybe I can learn French.”
Williams welcomed Ohanian to the world in September 2017. According to Essence, Williams has been teaching Ohanian French since she was an infant. At only 11 months old, baby Olympia understood “lavez les mains,” which means wash your hands. Williams’ showed the impressive skill on an Instagram story. Turns out she was washing her hands with the dog’s water bowl. But that still counts.
The family was in France this week for the 2020 French Open. Williams is a three-time French Open champion but withdrew from the tournament Wednesday because of a previous injury. She made the announcement shortly before her second-round match and said in a news conference, “I really wanted to give an effort here. It‘s my Achilles that didn’t have enough time to properly heal after the [US] Open” She continued, ”I was able to get it somewhat better, but just looking long term in this tournament -- will I be able to get through enough matches? For me, I don’t think I could. Struggling to walk, so that’s kind of a telltale sign I should try to recover.”