Serena Williams' daughter's doll might be the breakout star of the Australian Open

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Serena Williams' daughter's doll might be the breakout star of the Australian Open

By Anthony Colangelo

Serena Williams' one-year-old daughter OIympia Ohanian is no stranger to social media, despite her age.

Olympia already has 540,000 followers on Instagram but it's her doll, Qai Qai, that's stealing the headlines during her first trip to Australia.

Qai Qai - pronounced Qway Qway - has 88,000 followers on Instagram and was a topic of conversation during Williams' press conference following her punishing victory over neighbour Tatjana Maria of Germany on Tuesday.

“I wanted her to have a black doll,” Williams told reporters. “Growing up, I didn’t have that many opportunities to have black dolls. And I was just thinking, like, I want her first doll to be black. And her heritage, obviously she’s mixed, she’s Caucasian and black, but I feel like that was her first doll and I said her second doll would be Caucasian.

“I definitely want to always teach her love and teach her just basic human — humans should always have love for each other, no matter what colour they are.”

Here's Qai Qai with Olympia in November:

And here's Qai Qai helping out with some camera-work on Rod Laver Arena during a Williams practice session:

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It seems as though Qai Qai's Instagram account is run by Williams' husband and Olympia's father Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit.

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After her win on Tuesday, Williams also discussed what it felt like to be back on Australian soil after winning the tournament in 2017 while pregnant with Olympia.

"The last time I was here I was actually pregnant and playing at the same time, which is insane," Williams said.

"It's kind of weird walking on, by myself this time, but it feels good."

Her triumph over Maria was a brutal 6-0, 6-2 affair, with the German clearly rattled from start to finish on centre court.

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Maria was in tears after the game and at one point, with her serve badly mis-firing she pleaded with herself: "Come on Tatjana, you're a professional!"

Williams consoled her neighbour who was in tears at the net following the match.

"I know Tatjana can be incredibly tricky, especially for a match up against my game style, so I am glad I was able to come out and do what I needed to do," Williams said.

"We're actually neighbours. So we go to each other's houses and she is an incredibly nice person so our daughters play together.

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