The ball is in her court now.<\/p>\n
Thea Frodin is set to make her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the 2026 US Open<\/a> on Tuesday \u2014 five years after acting as Serena Williams\u2019 body double in the \u201cKing Richard\u201d biopic.<\/p>\n The 17-year-old will enter the match as a wildcard, playing against Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina in the Women\u2019s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour main draw.<\/p>\n Thea Frodin made her Grand Slam main-draw debut on Tuesday as a wild card at the 2026 US Open. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n The 17-year-old athlete played against Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve only dreamed of moments like this. The fact that I\u2019m here right now, and able to experience it in real life, is still a little bit shocking to me,\u201d said the tennis star, per the tournament\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be standing here right now and actually getting a chance to play in the main draw, it means everything. [Rybakina\u2019s] No. 2 for a reason, so I\u2019m expecting a battle. Hopefully, I can bring out my best level against her.\u201d<\/p>\n Frodin was 12 when she booked the role as Williams\u2019 body double in \u201cKing Richard.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2021 biopic followed the real-life story of Serena and her sister Venus Williams\u2019 rise to professional tennis players with the help of their father, Richard Williams.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve only dreamed of moments like this. The fact that I\u2019m here right now, and able to experience it in real life, is still a little bit shocking to me,\u201d said Frodin (pictured during today\u2019s match). Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n The teen (seen above with Will Smith) portrayed Williams\u2019 body double in the 2021 \u201cKing Richard\u201d biopic. Thea Frodin\/Instagram<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tWant more celebrity and pop culture news?\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with Page Six Daily.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The teen booked the role after she swept the singles, doubles and mixed at a local sectional tournament. <\/p>\n \u201cIt helps that I was kind of playing a sport that I\u2019ve done my whole life, so it didn\u2019t feel too new,\u201d she explained in an interview at the time, per WTA Tennis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI just had to go out and play tennis, try to replicate her strokes a little bit. Doing it with Will Smith was super cool. He\u2019s a super nice guy. He actually gave me some on-set tips and things to take with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith, 57, won an Oscar for his role as Richard, while Serena was played by actress Demi Singleton.<\/p>\n Even though Frodin acted as Serena\u2019s double onscreen, she has never met the tennis champ, 44, or Venus, 46, in person \u2014 at least not yet.<\/p>\n Frodin has yet to meet Serena (pictured practicing tennis in June) or her sister, Venus Williams, in person. Getty Images for LTA<\/p>\n Serena (pictured above) made a surprise return to the US Open this year, four years after announcing her retirement. Ryan Northrop\/BFA.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n As for Serena, she made a surprise return to the US Open this year, competing in mixed doubles and preparing for a women\u2019s doubles appearance.<\/p>\n In 2022, the mom of two announced she was retiring from tennis<\/a> to focus on building her family.<\/p>\n Serena and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, share\u00a0daughters Olympia and Adira, born in September 2017<\/a> and August 2023<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ball is in her court now. Thea Frodin is set to make her Grand Slam main-draw debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28267,34690,31384,2755,96,9140,101,26277,118,56,54,55,7259],"class_list":["post-757030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-actors","tag-athletes","tag-biopics","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-teens","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}