Serena Williams' athleticism extends beyond holding a tennis racket.
Williams, who is featured on the new Aug. 10 issue of New York Magazine, posted an Instagram and a tweet revealing some behind-the-scenes details of her shoot. "Still working on that toe point," she wrote in the caption.
A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Aug 10, 2015 at 7:54am PDT
NYMag also shared the final version on Twitter (don't miss the adorable dog in the right-hand corner of the shot).
Serena Williams eyes a post-court career in fashion—but first, there's tennis history to make: http://t.co/Xl9uszdy7f pic.twitter.com/ZrnyFOaIPh — New York Magazine (@NYMag) August 10, 2015
If Williams wins next month's U.S. Open, she will have won all four grand slams in the past year.
The NYMag article details the records that Williams has set:
The last time a man as geriatric as Serena won a grand slam was 1972. She has won three in the past six months. Her 16-year run is, in the words of Sports Illustrated, 'one of the most sustained careers of excellence in the history of athletics.
The piece also describes the racism that she and her sister, Venus, have faced in their careers. People have called the sisters masculine and accused them of taking steroids: "This impulse may also explain why Serena Williams, who has prevailed over Maria Sharapova 18 times and fallen to her only twice, makes less in endorsements than her blonde Russian counterpart."
Split Warm up exercises... #proceedwithcaution pic.twitter.com/QqJEAaFo5W
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 10, 2015
Williams says in the article, though, that she won't let the haters bring her down. She even invokes Nelson Mandela to make her point: "I don’t dwell in the past. If I do, I’ll be swallowed up by negativity. As Mandela once said, ‘I will be in a mental prison.'"