Legendary Serena Williams has announced that she is planning to retire from Tennis 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 one of the greatest to play the game. She will turn 41 next month and has decided to shift her focus to the family after the US Open this year.
Meanwhile, Williams stepped onto a hardcourt for the first time in a year and a half on Monday in 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.
“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,” Serena said in a statement to Vogue magazine.
Williams said she does not like the word retirement and prefers to think of this stage of her life as “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
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 Aug. 29.
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.