Thea Frodin: From Playing Serena Williams to Facing Her at US Open

Thea Frodin used to be Serena Williams only on cue.

Under the floodlights of a film set, a 12-year-old from the United States slipped into Serena’s trademark power game, doubling for the actress who played her idol in the Oscar‑nominated “King Richard”. Now, five years on, she walks into the real thing: the US Open main draw, on the same stage where Serena built a legend.

This time there are no retakes.

From movie courts to Flushing Meadows

Frodin’s route to Flushing Meadows is unlike any other in this year’s field. Hand‑picked as a tennis-playing body double, she spent six months recreating Serena’s strokes for the cameras, working a few days a week with Will Smith as he brought Richard Williams to life.

“Being able to play the role of somebody that I looked up to for my whole life was super special,” she told the WTA website. “I was honoured. She was one of the players that I looked up to most, just when I was starting to play. She’s such an inspiration to me.”

The work was glamorous in theory, but often brutally cold in practice. Long, wet days on outdoor courts left the young Frodin shivering between takes. Smith, she recalls, made a point of arriving with hot water to keep her warm, a small gesture that stuck with her as much as any Hollywood moment.

Those months left a deeper imprint than she expected. To play Serena, she had to become Serena, at least technically. The mimicry worked a little too well.

“After I was done shooting, I got used to her strokes,” she told the US Open website. “My coaches were a bit frustrated because I naturally started to hit like her. I picked up Serena’s backhand, but I tried as much as possible to go back to my strokes.”

Learning to be herself again

That battle—to separate her own game from the one she once imitated—has defined the early stretch of her career. Ranked 580th in the world, Frodin arrives at her home Slam still carving out an identity, no longer the stand‑in, trying to prove she belongs in her own right.

Now the script flips completely. Instead of copying greatness, she stands across the net from it.

Her first-round draw? World number two Elena Rybakina, a two-time major champion and the reigning Australian Open winner. It is the kind of matchup that can rattle a seasoned pro, never mind a teenager making her main-draw debut.

Frodin refuses to blink.

“I’m trying to stay in the moment as much as possible,” she said. “This is a huge opportunity for me to enjoy the moment, have fun and see what I can do. The atmosphere, how loud the crowd will be, I feel like I fit well in that environment.”

Sharing the stage with her idols

All of it unfolds at a US Open that carries its own layer of nostalgia. Serena and Venus Williams will team up in doubles this year, a reminder of the era that shaped Frodin’s imagination and, briefly, her technique.

As the sisters step back onto the New York stage together, the teenager who once moved like Serena for the cameras walks into the same arena with her own name on the scoreboard, facing one of the game’s current standard-bearers.

Once, Thea Frodin played a young Serena Williams for the world to watch on screen. Now the world gets to see what happens when she finally plays as herself.