{"id":336123,"date":"2026-09-02T17:16:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336123\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:16:34","slug":"thea-frodin-who-doubled-as-serena-in-king-richard-makes-u-s-open-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336123\/","title":{"rendered":"Thea Frodin, who doubled as Serena in ‘King Richard,’ makes U.S. Open debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years ago, Thea Frodin<\/a> depicted Serena Williams in the Oscar-winning movie \u201cKing Richard,\u201d<\/a> performing as a body double.<\/p>\n

In a full-circle moment Tuesday afternoon, Frodin competed in a tournament that Williams long dominated.<\/p>\n

Frodin, 17, made her WTA Tour debut in the first round of the U.S. Open, losing to second-seeded Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-2 at the Grandstand stadium.<\/p>\n

Despite the final outcome, the California-born Frodin held her own in front of a supportive American crowd, ripping 11 aces and taking five games against the reigning Australian Open champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried going out there to see what it would be like just to feel no pressure,\u201d Frodin said. \u201cYeah, just go out there and have a fun time. I feel like that\u2019s what I accomplished, and obviously I have a lot to learn, but I\u2019m excited with most of the things I did out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A soon-to-be high school senior, Frodin earned a wild-card entry at the U.S. Open by winning the USTA Billie Jean King Girls\u2019 18s National Championships.<\/p>\n

But long before then, Frodin cemented her place in mainstream culture by serving as the body double to actress Demi Singleton, who played a young Serena in the 2021 sports biopic about the Williams sisters\u2019 upbringing by their eccentric father, Richard Williams.<\/p>\n

Will Smith starred as the title character and won Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his portrayal.<\/p>\n

Frodin said she had not yet met Serena, who was an executive producer on the film. Serena \u2014 a six-time singles champion at the U.S. Open \u2014 is set to compete with her sister Venus Williams in the doubles tournament<\/a> at Flushing Meadows this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I can get the chance soon, to get the opportunity to meet her,\u201d said Frodin, who is No. 585 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

\"TheaThea Frodin (pictured) faced Elena Rybakina at Grandstand. (Photo by Andrew Schwartz)<\/p>\n

Frodin commanded more fanfare than the typical wild-card participant due to her Hollywood history. While Frodin certainly noticed the attention, she said it did not affect her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s hard to get away from all of that,\u201d Frodin said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of just about accepting it and not letting it get to you. I feel like I did a good job of that. Obviously, I saw that Will Smith reposted one of my posts, so that was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kazakhstani-born Rybakina said her team informed her of Frodin\u2019s unique backstory. She came away impressed by the teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see the movie,\u201d Rybakina, 27, said. \u201cBut yeah, it\u2019s a cool experience, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five years ago, Thea Frodin depicted Serena Williams in the Oscar-winning movie \u201cKing Richard,\u201d performing as a body…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[126263,36476,126262,9,24,63,122,124,123,82657,126261,78669],"class_list":["post-336123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-demi-singleton","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-king-richard","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-serena-williams","tag-thea-frodin","tag-u-s-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}