SERENA WILLIAMS, up there in the reckoning for the title of greatest tennis player of all time, has announced that she is planning to retire from the game after the US Open.
The 40-year-old has stated that she is evolving away from the sport which made her a global icon. Williams has won 23 grand slam titles in her illustrious career so far and is ranked amongst the greatestcompete in any sport. She will turn 41 next month and has decided to shift her focus to her family, including having another child with her husband, Alexis Ohanian. She also said she feels professionally driven by her venture capital firm Serena Ventures, which she launched a few years ago.
“I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” Williams said in an essay for Vogue published Tuesday.
“I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”
Williams is playing this week in Toronto, at a hard-court tournament that leads into the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam event, which begins in New York on August 29. It was the first time she stepped onto a hardcourt in a year and a half on Monday at the WTA Toronto tournament where she fought through to the second round with a straight sets victory over Nuria Parrizas Diaz.
It was her first singles victory since the 2021 French Open, some 14 months ago.
The American has won more Grand Slam singles titles in the professional era than any other woman or man. Only one player, Margaret Court, collected more, 24, although she won a portion of hers in the amateur era.
She announced on Tuesday that “the countdown has begun” to her retirement from the sport.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try. And the lead-up tournaments will be fun,” she told Vogue.
Also read:
Serena Williams Says Farewell to Tennis On Her Own Terms—And In Her Own Words
