Thea Frodin: From Serena Williams' Body Double to US Open Debut
Thea Frodin used to be Serena Williams. Now she wants to try being herself.
Five years ago, at 12, the Californian was cast as the tennis-playing body double for the young Serena in the Oscar-nominated film King Richard. She spent months on court with Will Smith, who played Richard Williams, copying every detail of the woman she had idolised since she first picked up a racquet.
Now, still a teenager and ranked 580 in the world, she walks into the real thing: a main-draw singles debut at her home Grand Slam, the US Open, on the same stage where Serena and Venus Williams will reunite in doubles.
And waiting for her across the net? World number two Elena Rybakina, a two-time major champion and the reigning Australian Open winner. No gentle introduction. No soft landing.
From movie set to main draw
For half a year, Frodin lived in Serena’s shadow in the most literal way. Several days a week, she was on set with Smith, filming in cold, wet conditions as they recreated the early grind of the Williams sisters’ rise.
She remembers the small things. Smith turning up with hot water on those bleak, rainy days to keep her warm between takes. Long hours of hitting the same patterns, the same footwork, the same backhand over and over until it looked like Serena’s.
It worked almost too well.
“After I was done shooting, I got used to her strokes,” Frodin told the US Open website. Her coaches noticed it straight away and, as she put it, “were a bit frustrated because I naturally started to hit like her.”
She had picked up Serena’s backhand. The shape, the aggression, the feel. Then came the hard part: unlearning a legend and finding her own game again.
She tried, she said, “as much as possible to go back to my strokes.”
Living her own script
The irony is sharp. As a child, Frodin’s dream was simply to be on the same courts as Serena. On the film, she literally stepped into that role.
“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.”
Now, the cameras will be there again, but this time the story is not pre-written. There is no director, no second take, no choreographed rally. Just a teenager walking into one of the loudest arenas in tennis against one of the most ruthless ball-strikers in the sport.
Frodin insists she wants to soak it in, not shrink from it.
“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.”
That belief will be tested quickly. Rybakina brings the full weight of a top-two ranking and major pedigree, the kind of opponent who usually walks into week two in New York without much fuss. For Frodin, just sharing the court is a leap into a different universe.
Yet she has already spent time in a strange in-between world: not quite Serena, not quite herself, somewhere in the space between fiction and reality. Now the lines are clear.
This time, the strokes are hers. The nerves are hers. The night, if she can handle it, might just be hers as well.
