Serena Williams Shares the Origin of Her Tennis Court Groan

Serena Williams Gives Fans A Look At Her Game – And, More Specifically, The Iconic Noise She Made During Matches!

The 42-year-old tennis legend shared the origins of her famous growl during an interview with Hot Ones published on Thursday, July 4. While speaking with host Sean Evans, she revealed that the go-to noise was actually inspired by another tennis great.

“I growl because when I was younger, I loved this tennis player named Monica Seles and she growls. She had this really cool growl. It was like, ‘(growl).’ And I loved it, I was like, ‘This is so cool,’” Williams recalled. “So I literally growl at her and then it just became natural and then my growl became like a (growl). It was really loud.”

“I guess it’s a form of breathing,” she added of her longtime technique. “I grunt now while playing golf… It’s like a part of my life… Other people say it’s a relief and it’s a different way of exhaling air.”

Seles, who won 59 career titles and played his last professional match in 2003, actually inspired the “growl-ometer” on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

As Seles said at the the wall street journal In 2013, she started grunting at a young age. “Some people loved it, some people hated it,” Seles said. “I’ve been grunting since I was 7 years old. I was a little girl and there were no rackets for kids back then. So my dad just gave me his racket to play with, but I was little, so I put all my energy into it, the same way I played with both hands on both sides, because I had to.”

She added: “It wasn’t a problem until I became number one and then competitors always tried to find a little advantage and started complaining, because at the end of the day (tennis) was an extremely competitive industry.”

As for Williams, by the sunShe previously revealed to David Letterman in 2009 how Seles inspired her growing up. “She was the first person I knew who used to growl really loud and really hard, so that’s kind of how I modeled my growl,” she said. “Because you have to have role models when it comes to growling.”

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Williams, who is now retired, sat down with PEOPLE for its 50th anniversary issue in April and was asked what she was most proud of in her career. As she explained at the time, “being able to persevere” topped that list.

“I think perseverance is something that’s not talked about a lot. But I think to persevere, through the negative and positive times, and to continue to have a career that spans over two decades, is pretty awesome,” she said. “And I feel really lucky to have been able to do that.”

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Elsewhere in the discussion, Williams added that the “list” of things she still wants to accomplish – even after her 23 Grand Slam titles and several other accolades – “never ends.”

“Now I really want to be that entrepreneur that I’ve been for 25 years. I’ve always been in that space, but I’m really focused on my businesses and growing not only my brand but different brands and working with different founders as a venture capitalist,” she said. “But I think the very next thing on my list is just being a good mom.”

Williams is mom to daughters Olympia and Adira, whom she shares with husband Alexis Ohanian.