Thea Frodin used to pretend to be Serena Williams for the cameras. Now she walks into Flushing Meadows trying to become her own story.
Five years ago, Frodin was 12 and hired 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, drilling Serena’s strokes, copying her movement, learning to inhabit the aura of the 23-time major champion she had grown up idolising.
“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.”
Those days on set were not glamorous in the way people imagine Hollywood. Frodin, then barely a teenager, was out on cold, wet courts several days a week over a six‑month stretch. Smith, already a global star, made a point of bringing hot water to keep her warm between takes. The work was repetitive, technical, precise. She wasn’t just acting. She was learning to move like Serena.
She learned the role a little too well.
By the time filming wrapped, the mimicry had seeped into her real game. “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.”
That was the movie. This is the major.
This week, the 19-year-old American walks into the US Open main draw for the first time in singles, at her home Slam, on the same hard courts where Serena and Venus Williams will reunite in doubles. The symmetry is striking: the girl who once played Serena’s younger self now arrives on the biggest stage in the sport Serena helped define.
The draw did her no favours. It did give her a stage.
Waiting in the first round is world number two Elena Rybakina, a two-time major champion and the reigning Australian Open winner. For a player ranked 580 in the world, it is the sharpest of tests, the kind of matchup that can overwhelm or ignite.
Frodin sounds determined to choose the latter.
“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.”
There is no illusion here that she is stepping in as the next Serena. The rankings alone underline the size of the climb ahead. But the path from child extra to main-draw player is rare enough, and the echoes around this particular fortnight make it feel like something more than a nice coincidence.
Once, Frodin’s job was to disappear into Serena’s silhouette, to make sure no one noticed where the actress ended and the body double began. Now the whole point is the opposite. Under the New York lights, against one of the game’s current standard-bearers, she finally gets to find out how her own strokes hold up when the cameras are rolling and the result actually counts.
