Serena Williams has announced in a long article with Vogue that she is set to retire from tennis and focus on expanding her family.
The 23-time grand slam champion has only just returned after a year absence from the sport where she went out in the opening round at Wimbledon.
Williams yesterday won her first match since Roland Garros last year after the American beat Nuria Parrizas-Diaz in Toronto.
However after hinting that the end of her career is close, Williams has now revealed that she is set to retire from tennis very soon.
How soon that would be nobody knows but the US Open would be a fitting place to end her career as that has been a dream of hers to win the event since she was a child.
Announcing the news to Vogue Magazine, the 40 year-old said it’s time to evolve away from tennis and work on expanding her family, “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,” Williams said.
“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. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.
“But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words. You have carried me to so many wins and so many trophies. I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis. And I’m going to miss you.”
Williams has had an extraordinary career winning the most grand slam singles titles in the open era and breaking every record and barrier in the sport.
Although Serena found it hard to come to the decision to leave the sport, she admitted that she is ready for whatever is next, “There is no happiness in this topic for me. I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain,” Williams admitted.
“It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.
“I don’t know how I’m going to be able to look at this magazine when it comes out, knowing that this is it, the end of a story that started in Compton, California, with a little Black girl who just wanted to play tennis.
“I started playing tennis with the goal of winning the U.S. Open. I didn’t think past that. And then I just kept winning. I remember when I passed Martina Hingis’s grand slam count. Then Seles’s. And then I tied Billie Jean King, who is such an inspiration for me because of how she has pioneered gender equality in all sports. Then it was climbing over the Chris Evert–Martina Navratilova mountain.
“I had my chances after coming back from giving birth. I went from a C-section to a second pulmonary embolism to a grand slam final. I played while breastfeeding. I played through postpartum depression. But I didn’t get there.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda. I didn’t show up the way I should have or could have. But I showed up 23 times, and that’s fine. Actually it’s extraordinary. But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.”
Williams ends her career having won 72 WTA titles, spending a record-equalling 186 consecutive weeks as world number one as well as winning a grand slam in three separate decades.
The American is a true tennis icon that will sorely be missed for her influence both on and off the court.
Williams will now look to end her amazing career in style as she heads to Cincinnati and the US Open after Toronto.
The US Open will take place on the 29th of August where the American will be unseeded.
