Serena Williams Stands Up To Haters In An Energizing New Beats By Dre Promo [Video]

Serena Williams is in a new commercial for Beats by Dre. The promo highlights the No. 1-ranked American professional tennis player in women’s singles tennis, and offers a glimpse of how she defies hate on a daily basis.

While Serena Williams is making history, earning more tennis tournament titles than any other woman in tennis history since Steffi Graf, the 21-time champion of tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments continues to face put-downs and criticism for her race, her gender, and the way she looks.

Nevertheless, Serena is in the Beats by Dre commercial showing her struggle in silencing the hatred she withstands.

Mashable‘s coverage explains how Serena Williams trained and faced down haters at an early age.

“When she was training in Compton, California, her father and former coach Richard Williams paid busloads of school kids to stand outside the tennis court and shout curses and discouragement for hours at her and her sister.”

Serena continues in her struggle to face the hatred spewed on the internet, radio, and television. Perhaps the new Beats by Dre commercial can be viewed as a vehicle to show her achievements, stand up to critics and a genuine catharsis.

The commercial starts with Serena waking up to her Apple Watch on her nightstand. She gets up and walks into her kitchen, where a television analyst boldly proclaims that the tennis champion is off her “fearless game.”

As a teakettle produces that all-too-familiar whistling sound, Serena’s emotions rise, and she changes her facial expression. Serena openly displays her doubt and pain—a part of her rarely seen by champions on most television interviews and other media coverage. Andra Day’s ballad “Rise Up” plays in the background while Serena Williams trains to the song.

The producers of the Beats by Dre ad wrote an introduction on YouTube.

“The world knows Serena’s story. It’s one that reads: adversity, doubts, haters, health obstacles, criticisms, comebacks, and victories. This story is a window into Serena’s soul, into a chapter so personal no one in the world knew about until today.”

The producers add the following short passage pertaining to Serena Williams’ life.

“A window’s glimpse inside Serena Williams’ life as she continually pushes past adversity and naysayers in preparation of winning her 22nd major – inspiring our generation to ‘RISE UP’ a thousand times again.”

On Tuesday, Serena Williams is the star of the U.S. Open again this year. She is scheduled to face her older sister Venus Williams in a match in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

If Serena Williams happens to win the U.S. Open, she will have won all four majors in one calendar year and will have won 22 Grand Slam titles, which would make her the first woman since Steffi Graf to achieve that landmark in the history of women’s tennis.

[Featured image via Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images]